Giant in-plane optical anisotropy of α-plane ZnO on r-plane sapphire

We have measured the in-plane optical anisotropy （IPOA） of （1120） ZnO （a-plane） on （10]-2） sapphire （r-plane） by reflectance difference spectroscopy （RDS） at room temperature. Giant IPOA has been observed be- tween the light polarized direction parallel and perpendicular to the c axis of ZnO, since the symmetry of a-plane is C2v. A sharp resonance has been observed near the fundamental band gap, which is induced by the polarization- depend band gap shift. The sharp line shape is attributed to the exciton transition. The spectra fitting and differential spectra indicate the polarization-depend band energies. The giant IPOA is possible enhanced by anisotropy strain along and perpendicular to the c axis in the a-plane.