Anisotropic optical properties of (110)-oriented quantum wells

We present a spectroscopic study of (110)-oriented quantum-well structures. The lower symmetry of the quantum confinement direction that is inherent in these structures results in in-plane polarization anisotropy of the optical transitions. The optical transitions observed in the photoluminescence- excitation spectra of these structures are modeled using an eight-band kp-type effective-mass theory. We directly determine the valence-band anisotropy of the quantum-well material from the orientational dependence of the transition energies and oscillator strengths.