  Optical orientation in the strained semiconductor superlattices is
investigated theoretically. The dependence of the features in spin-polarization
spectra on the structure parameters is clarified. The value of polarization in
the first polarization maximum in the SL structures is shown to grow with the
splitting between the hh- and lh- states of the valence band, the joint strain
and confinement effects on the hh1- lh1 splitting being strongly influenced by
the tunneling in the barriers. In strained structures with high barriers for
the holes initial polarization can exceed 95 %. Calculated polarization spectra
are close to the experimental spectra of polarized electron emission.
