Piezoplasmonics: strain-induced tunability of plasmon resonance in AlAs quantum wells

Abstract

We demonstrate tuning of two-dimensional (2D) plasmon spectrum in modulation-doped AlAs quantum wells via the application of in-plane uniaxial strain. We show that dramatic change in the plasma spectrum is caused by strain-induced redistribution of charge carriers between anisotropic $X_x$ and $X_y$ valleys. Discovered piezoplasmonic effect provides a tool to study the band structure of 2D systems. We use piezoplasmonic effect to measure how the inter-valley energy splitting depends on the deformation. This dependency yields the AlAs deformation potential of $E_2=(5.6\pm 0.3)$~eV.

References in corpus (3)

• Low-temperature, in situ tunable, uniaxial stress measurements in semiconductors using a piezoelectric actuator
• Dependence of spin susceptibility of a two-dimensional electron system on the valley degree of freedom
• Giant low-temperature piezoresistance effect in AlAs two-dimensional electrons