Photoreflectance study of surface Fermi level in GaAs and GaAlAs

Franz–Keldysh oscillations from GaAs and AlGaAs structures have been studied and we find that the electric field obtained from the oscillations is in agreement with that derived from electrostatic calculations. Our results show that illumination from pump and probe beams in a normal photoreflectance experiment can significantly affect the measurement and thus erroneously lead to a reduced value of the electric field. The Fermi level on the bare surface of AlGaAs with different Al mole fraction has also been determined.