title: Theoretical calculations of low-field electroreflectance of ultra-thin hexagonal BN films at the fundamental absorption edge.
abstract: A theory is developed to describe the electric field effect on the reflectivity of ultra-thin films of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) at the fundamental absorption edge. The formulation of the theory is based on the original nonlinear optical approach to electroreflectance (ER) worked out by Aspnes and Rowe (1972 Phys. Rev. B 5 4022). Within the framework of the approach, the electric-field-induced change in the reflectivity in the low-field regime is expressed in terms of the third derivative of the linear optical dielectric function of the system. An explicit closed-form expression for this function is derived within the independent-layer approximation using the tight-binding representation for the π-electron energy bands of h-BN atomic layers. Incorporating this result with the general formalism of Aspnes and Rowe enables the electro-optical response function to be obtained in an explicit analytic form convenient to further numerical analysis for any particular set of input empirical parameters. The results of such an analysis suitable for the ER effect in few-layer h-BN films are presented and discussed in the context of important information they are able to provide for band structure parameters of this material. Our findings (e.g. distinct resonant field-invariant spectral features in the ER near the fundamental bandgap of the material under study) suggest that the ER technique can be used as a sensitive tool to help characterize the electronic structure of atomic hexagonal layers built from boron and nitrogen.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Mordovian Ogarev State University, Saransk 430005, Russia.
authors.forename: Vl A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Margulis
authors.forename: E E
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Muryumin
authors.forename: E A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Gaiduk