The authors report the observation of strongly polarization-sensitive resonances in the electroreflectance (ER) spectra of multilayered semiconductor structures. The measurements were done on vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser structures grown on GaAs(001) substrates. The ER spectral features undergo a $180°$ phase shift as the polarization vector $\mathit{E}$ of the probe beam is rotated by $90°$ from $\mathit{E}\parallel \left[1\overline{1}0\right]$ to $\mathit{E}\parallel \left[110\right]$ in the (001) plane. Through experiments and simulations, these resonances are shown to arise due to the linear electro-optic effect (LEOE). The influence of LEOE at energies below the band gap becomes prominent mainly because of optical-interference induced enhancement of the Seraphin coefficients in a multilayered structure. Implications for the analysis of ER spectral lineshapes of multilayered semiconductor structures are highlighted.

• Received 9 September 2008

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.78.195312