Inelastic light scattering by electronic excitations in semiconductor heterostructures

In recent years there has been much research on inelastic light scattering by quasi-2-D electron systems in quantum wells and heterostructures. In this paper we present a general description of resonant inelastic light scattering as a spectroscopic method that reveals single particle and collective behavior of electrons and holes in semiconductor microstructures and review some of the more recent work. We consider high-mobility two-dimensional free carrier systems in modulation doped GaAs-(AlGa)As heterostructures, purely space-charge induced quantum wells of GaAs and shallow impurities in GaAs- (AlGa)As quantum wells.