Electron effective mass is a fundamental material parameter defining the free charge carrier transport properties, but it is very challenging to be experimentally determined at high temperatures relevant to device operation. In this work, we obtain the electron effective mass parameters in a Si-doped GaN bulk substrate and epitaxial layers from terahertz (THz) and mid-infrared (MIR) optical Hall effect (OHE) measurements in the temperature range of 38-340 K. The OHE data are analyzed using the well-accepted Drude model to account for the free charge carrier contributions. A strong temperature dependence of the electron effective mass parameter in both bulk and epitaxial GaN with values ranging from (0.18 +/- 0.02) m(0) to (0.34 +/- 0.01) m(0) at a low temperature (38 K) and room temperature, respectively, is obtained from the THz OHE analysis. The observed effective mass enhancement with temperature is evaluated and discussed in view of conduction band nonparabolicity, polaron effect, strain, and deviations from the classical Drude behavior. On the other hand, the electron effective mass parameter determined by MIR OHE is found to be temperature independent with a value of (0.200 +/- 0.002) m(0). A possible explanation for the different findings from THz OHE and MIR OHE is proposed. (c) 2024 Author(s). All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

The anisotropic permittivity parameters of monoclinic single crystal lutetium oxyorthosilicate, Lu2SiO5 (LSO), have been determined in the terahertz spectral range. Using terahertz generalized spectroscopic ellipsometry (THz-GSE), we obtained the THz permittivities along the a, b, and c? crystal directions, which correspond to the ea; eb, and ec? on-diagonal tensor elements. The associated off diagonal tensor element eac? was also determined experimentally, which is required to describe LSO's optical response in the monoclinic a-c crystallographic plane. From the four tensor elements obtained in the model fit, we calculate the direction of the principal dielectric axes in the a-c plane. We find good agreementwhen comparing THz-GSE permittivities to the static permittivity tensors from previous infrared and density functional theory studies.

Polar dielectrics are key materials of interest for infrared (IR) nanophotonic applications due to their ability to host phonon-polaritons that allow for low-loss, subdiffractional control of light. The properties of phonon-polaritons are limited by the characteristics of optical phonons, which are nominally fixed for most "bulk" materials. Superlattices composed of alternating atomically thin materials offer control over crystal anisotropy through changes in composition, optical phonon confinement, and the emergence of new modes. In particular, the modified optical phonons in superlattices offer the potential for so-called crystalline hybrids whose IR properties cannot be described as a simple mixture of the bulk constituents. To date, however, studies have primarily focused on identifying the presence of new or modified optical phonon modes rather than assessing their impact on the IR response. This study focuses on assessing the impact of confined optical phonon modes on the hybrid IR dielectric function in superlattices of GaSb and AlSb. Using a combination of first principles theory, Raman, FTIR, and spectroscopic ellipsometry, the hybrid dielectric function is found to track the confinement of optical phonons, leading to optical phonon spectral shifts of up to 20 cm-1. These results provide an alternative pathway toward designer IR optical materials. Optical phonons are known to become confined when the size of the host crystal approaches atomic limits. This confinement offers a unique yet underexplored pathway toward the modification and design of optical phonons in tailored atomic-scale devices. This study sheds light on the criteria for, and ramifications of phonon confinement, paving the way for designer phonon applications.image

We determine the composition dependence of the transverse and longitudinal optical infrared-active phonon modes in rhombohedral α-(AlxGa1−x)2O3 alloys by far-infrared and infrared generalized spectroscopic ellipsometry. Single-crystalline high quality undoped thin-films grown on m-plane oriented α-Al2O3 substrates with x = 0.18, 0.37, and 0.54 were investigated. A single mode behavior is observed for all phonon modes, i.e., their frequencies shift gradually between the equivalent phonon modes of the isostructural binary parent compounds. We also provide physical model line shape functions for the anisotropic dielectric functions. We use the anisotropic high-frequency dielectric constants for polarizations parallel and perpendicular to the lattice c axis measured recently by Hilfiker et al. [Appl. Phys. Lett. 119, 092103 (2021)], and we determine the anisotropic static dielectric constants using the Lyddane–Sachs–Teller relation. The static dielectric constants can be approximated by linear relationships between those of α-Ga2O3 and α-Al2O3. The optical phonon modes and static dielectric constants will become useful for device design and free charge carrier characterization using optical techniques.