Wavelength modulated absorption in SiC

Wavelength modulated absorption spectra of the free excitons in 6H, 15R and 3C SiC have been measured. The spin-orbit splitting of the valence bands of the uniaxial and cubic polytypes are found to be 7 and 10 meV respectively. Using a new value for the exciton binding energy of 27 meV, an improved value of the fundamental gap of cubic SiC, E_g = 2.417 eV, is derived. Due to the small spin-orbit splitting, the valence bands are highly non-parabolic at low energies.