Electroreflectance of strontium titanate

The room temperature electroreflectance (ER) measurements for cubic SiTiO₃ are reported with particular emphasis on experimental conditions important for consistent reproducible lineshapes. This study includes for the first time a determination of the position of zero band perturbation (flatband) by making use of the even field nature of the ER lineshapes. The ER spectra are dependent upon dc bias, indicating the importance of a knowledge of the flatband position. A Kramers-Kronig analysis is performed and the lineshapes are reported in terms of ΔR/R, Δε₁ and Δε₂. The results in terms of Δε₂ show that the strongest direct transition occurs near 3.8 eV. The weak structure in the 3.4 eV region is due to either indirect transitions or weak direct transitions. Our unpolarized flatband ER spectra give rise to structures which for (110) samples are resolved into contributions from [001] and [12̄10] polarized spectra. In addition to the large oscillations observed above the band gap, weaker oscillatory structure is observed in the range 1.5 to 2.8 eV in the polarized spectra of (110) faced samples. The oscillations for [11̄0] polarization are 180° out of phase with those for [001] polarization.