Temperature-dependent refractive index of AlGaAs for quantum-photonic devices near the bandgap

Abstract

We present an experimental method to determine the refractive index of $Al_{x}Ga_{1-x}As$ (x = 0.0 - 0.5) from 300 K to 4 K across the 500 - 1100 nm wavelength range. The values are extracted from spectroscopically observed microcavity resonances in thin $Al_{x}Ga_{1-x}As$ membranes embedded between fully and partially reflective gold mirrors. Refined Varshni and Paessler models are used to describe temperature-dependent bandgap shifts and material composition. By tracking resonance shifts and benchmarking against finite-difference time-domain simulations, we derive the dispersive optical response with high precision. This yields a quantitatively improved analytical expression for the refractive index of $Al_{x}Ga_{1-x}As$ matching the experimental results with a coefficient of determination as high as $R^2=0.993$, enabling accurate modeling near the band edge at cryogenic temperatures. The method is straightforward and broadly applicable to other semiconductor systems, offering a valuable tool for the design of micro photonic devices such as quantum light sources.