Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

The optical properties of GaBixAs1-x (0.04 < x < 0.08) grown by molecular beam epitaxy have been studied by photomodulated reflectance spectroscopy. The alloys exhibit a strong reduction in the bandgap as well as an increase in the spin-orbit splitting energy with increasing Bi concentration. These observations are explained by a valence band anticrossing model, which shows that a restructuring of the valence band occurs as the result of an anticrossing interaction between the extended states of the GaAs valence band and the resonant T2 states of the Bi atoms.