Abstract
The activation of inhomogeneous electric field-induced Raman scattering (IEFIRS) at ZnSe/GaAs interfaces is investigated. The consideration of the inhomogeneous character of the electric field brings additional conditions on top of those predicted by the microscopic and perturbative approaches. These conditions concern the relative orientations of (i) the wave vector of the vibrational modes in the matter, (ii) the direction of the electric field at the junction, and (iii) the gradient vector of the electric field magnitude in the space charge regions. As latter vector has opposite directions in the layer and the substrate, IEFIRS is only observed from one side of the junction for a given scattering geometry. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(99)03604-X].