Shallow acceptor bound exciton and free exciton states in high-purity zinc telluride

We investigated excitons bound to shallow acceptors in high-purity ZnTe and measured excitation spectra of two-hole luminescence lines at 1.6 K using a tunable dye-laser. The electron-hole coupling in the bound exciton (BE) states appears to be very different for the various acceptors even for almost identical exciton localisation energies. Three different types of BE are reported. For the Li-acceptor BE we observe three sub-components separated by 0.22 and 0.17 meV and interpreted as J = $\text{1}\text{2}$, $\text{3}\text{2}$, $\text{5}\text{2}$ states. The Ag-acceptor BE exhibits a strong ground state and a weak excited state at 1.3 meV higher energy. For the as yet unidentified k-acceptor we observe a single BE level, degenerate with the Ag-acceptor BE ground state. Dips in the excitation spectra due to absorption into free exciton 1S, 2S, and 3S states yield an exciton Rydberg R₀ = 12.8±0.3 meV and a free exciton binding energy FE(1S) = 13.2±0.3 meV.     

Spin relaxation of Mn ions in (CdMn)Te/(CdMg)Te quantum wells under picosecond optical pumping

Spin relaxation of Mn ions in a Cd_0.97Mn_0.03Te/Cd_0.75Mg_0.25Te quantum well with photogenerated quasi-two-dimensional electron-hole plasma at liquid helium temperatures in an external magnetic field has been investigated. Heating of Mn ions by photogenerated carriers due to spin and energy exchange between the hot electron-hole plasma and Mn ions through direct sd-interaction between electron and Mn spins has been detected. This process has a short characteristic time of about 4 ns, which leads to appreciable heating of the Mn spin subsystem in about 0.5 ns. Even under uniform excitation of a dense electron-hole plasma, the Mn heating is spatially nonuniform, and leads to formation of spin domains in the quantum well magnetic subsystem. The relaxation time of spin domains after pulsed excitation is measured to be about 70 ns. Energy relaxation of excitons in the random exchange potential due to spin domains results from exciton diffusion in magnetic field B=14 T with a characteristic time of 1 to 4 ns. The relaxation time decreases with decreasing optical pump power, which indicates smaller dimensions of spin domains. In weak magnetic fields (_B=2 T) a slow down in the exciton diffusion to 15 ns has been detected. This slow down is due to exciton binding to neutral donors (formation of bound excitons) and smaller spin domain amplitudes in low magnetic fields. The optically determined spin-lattice relaxation time of Mn ions in a magnetic field of 14 T is 270±10 and 16±7 ns for Mn concentrations of 3% and 12%, respectively. Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 112, 1440–1463 (October 1997)     

The location and shape of the conduction band minima in cubic silicon carbide

We have measured the inter-bound state excitation spectrum of the N_C donor in cubic β-SiC through the ‘two-electron’ transition satellites observed in the luminescent recombination of excitons bound to neutral N donors. Transitions are seen to p as well as s-like donor states although the transition oscillator strength is derived from interaction with the impurity core since parity is conserved through inter-valley scattering by p-like X phonons. The Zeeman splitting of a luminescence line involving the 2p± donor state yield the electron mass parameter m_t = 0.24 ± 0.01 m₀. This and the directly measured energy separations of the 2p₀ and 2p± states yields m_t/m₁ = 0.36 ± 0.01 with the static dielectric constant K = 9.92 ± 0.1. Mutually consistent central cell corrections of 1.1 and 8.4 meV are observed for the 2s(A₁) and 1s(A₁) donor states, the latter being in agreement with a recent estimate from electronic Raman scattering by Gaubis and Colwell. The ionization donor energy of the N_C donor, 53.6 ± 0.5 meV is consistent with earlier, less accurate estimates from donor-acceptor pair and free to bound luminescence. There is no evidence for a ‘camel's back’ conduction band structure in cubic SiC, unlike GaP. The two-phonon sidebands of the N_C donor exciton luminescence spectrum in SiC can be constructed by X and Г phonons only.     

Direct observation of localized exciton states in CdS<Subscript>1−<Emphasis Type="Italic">x</Emphasis></Subscript>Se<Subscript>x</Subscript> solid solutions

A system of isolated localized exciton states corresponding to particular energies from the tail of the density of states is observed in CdS_1?xSe_x crystals. From an analysis of the obtained photoluminescence excitation spectra, the boundary between the free and localized excitons and the length of the tail region of the density of localized states that make an essential contribution to radiative recombination are determined. It is shown that the localized and free excitons prove to be separated and represent two exciton subsystems. The energies of actual optical photons are accurately determined to be 23.6±0.2 and 35.6±0.3 meV for CdS_0.70Se_0.30 and 20.7±0.2 and 31.4±0.3 meV for CdS_0.50Se_0.50.     

The location of the lowest conduction band minima in gallium phosphide from bound exciton luminescence

Two weak satellite series with acceptor-independent displacement energies of 4.2₃ meV and 7.8₃ meV have been observed in the luminescence of excitons bound to neutral acceptors in GaP. These satellites contain broad background luminescence. Rather well defined superimposed peaks show relative strength which increases dramatically with decrease in exciton binding energy. The most plausible mechanism for these satellites involves bound exciton recombination with emission of one phonon to conserve momentum in the indirect transition and one or two further phonons to conserve momentum in g-type inter-valley scattering processes. This model is consistent with all known properties of the satellites and is strongly supported by a quantum-mechanical line width calculation. The narrow components arise from a diffuse tail on the bound exciton wave-function which is enhanced by the electron-hole correlation. The existence of this g-scattering process shows that the conduction band minima in GaP lie at 0.953 K^max_〈100〉, not exactly at K^max_〈100〉 as believed hitherto. This revision has important consequences for several properties of n-type GaP.     

GaP(N,Te,Zn)的静压光致荧光研究

对GaP(N,Te,Zn)样品做了77K的静压光致荧光研究。得到了N,NN₁,NN₃束缚激子能级的压力系数,以及施主Te和中性施主Te的束缚激子能级的压力系数。讨论了这些能级随压力的变化行为,并首次观察到Gap中自由激子的零声子发射。 关键词：     

Dipolar excitons in a potential trap in a magnetic field

The conditions for observing the Zeeman spin splitting compensation in an exciton Bose gas have been investigated. The magnetoluminescence of spatially indirect, dipolar excitons in a 25-nm-wide GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well upon their accumulation in a lateral electrostatic trap has been studied in the Faraday geometry. The critical magnetic field B _cr below which the spin (paramagnetic) splitting of the luminescence line for a heavy-hole exciton at the trap center is almost completely compensated due to the exchange interaction in a dense Bose gas has been found to increase linearly with exciton concentration in qualitative agreement with the theory. Using a potential trap is fundamentally important. Incomplete compensation is observed in a homogeneous photoexcitation spot for dipolar excitons: the splitting is considerably smaller than that for a spatially direct exciton but differs noticeably from zero. The spin splitting compensation effect is observed only under neutral charge balance conditions—there is no Zeeman splitting suppression in a charged quantum well.     

Band-edge emission in CuI single crystals

The photoluminescence spectra of CuI single crystals have been studied at T = 4.2 K and at various excitation levels. The emission band of donor-acceptor pairs (DAP) with a maximum at about 4200 Å has been shown to possess a complex structure. Theoretical analyses and exciton spectroscopy data make it possible to calculate the ionization energies for the donors and acceptors participating in the formation of DAP, which are equal to E_D = = 0.045?0.065 eV and E_A = 0.155?0.170 eV, respectively. The fine structure of emission due to the annihilation of excitons bound on acceptor pairs (band maximum 4075 Å) has been detected and calculated. The energy of the longitudinal optical phonon participating in the exciton-phonon interaction (LO ? 18.7 meV) has been determined.     

Thermal dissociation of excitons in a type-I GaAs/AlAs superlattice studied by time-resolved photoluminescence measurements

In order to investigate thermal properties of excitons, we have performed time-resolved photoluminescence (PL) measurements for a type-I (GaAs)₁₅/(AlAs)₁₅ superlattice. At low temperatures, PL signals show ordinal exponential time decay, whereas at high temperatures, the PL shows power decay. Such change of PL signals is understood by considering thermal dissociation of exciton into account. At low temperatures, recombination of bound excitons generates PL which shows exponential decay. At temperatures higher than the exciton binding energy, correlation between electrons and holes disappears. Recombination of free excitons causes PL which decays by a power function. By means of the least-squares fitting, we evaluate the portion of bound excitons, recombination time of bound and free excitons as functions of temperatures.     

Low-temperature photoluminescence of MBE-grown GaAs subject to an electric field

Low-temperature photoluminescence of GaAs has been investigated in MBE-grown Al _x Ga_1–x As-GaAs single heterojunctions subject to an electric field. No peak energy shift is observed in the emission lines due to free excitons and excitons bound to isolated centers when the electric field is applied. In contrast, the excitonic lines arising from the previously described defect-induced bound exciton (DIBX) transitions exhibit a prominent low-energy shift when the electric field is increased. We attribute these lines to excitons bound to acceptor pairs. The excitons bound to distant pairs have smaller binding energies than those bound to closer pairs. They are, therefore, easily dissociated in a weak electric field. The electrons and holes thus dissociated may again be trapped by closer pairs, which results in a low-energy shift of the overall spectrum. The photocurrent measured as a function of the electric field supports Dingle's rule for the valence bandedge discontinuity.     

The gallium-site donors germanium and silicon in gallium phosphide

The node in the Bloch part of the electron wave function expected for a Ga-site donor in GaP removes the usual valley-orbit splitting and associated chemical shift. However, the T₂ ground state can still show a small spin-valley splitting into Γ₈ and Γ₇ states, as previously verified for the Sn donor. We find that the optical properties of the Ge and Si donors deviate appreciably from this “normal” behaviour. The Ge donor is anomalously deep, E_D ～ 202 meV, yet binds an exciton by ～63 meV consistent with the Haynes rule for neutral donors in GaP. We find that this exciton possesses the large oscillator strength, f～3.5 × 10^-3, Zeeman and piezo-optical splittings characteristic of a Γ₆, 1s(A₁) ground state, like a P rather than Ga-site donor. However, f and the exciton localization energy are consistent with expectation for E_D ～ 200 meV, as measured from the lowest set of X conduction band minima, if we assume a symmetric A₁-like wave function. A possible explanation for this unexpected result is advanced. The much shallower Si donor, E_D～82 meV, binds an exciton by only ～ 14 meV, also consistent with the Haynes rule. By contrast, we find this Ga-site donor to be normal except that our Zeeman and piezo-optical results indicate an inverted spin-valley splitting, about 25% of that for the still shallower Sn donor. We also discuss the numerous low-lying excited states, some anomalous phonon replicas in the Ge and Si donor bound exciton spectra and the magneto-optical properties of a sharp line near 2.24 eV, attributed to the decay of excitons bound to (S)_p-(Ge)_p donor-acceptor associates.     

Magnetopolaritons in ZnTe

From an invariant expansion, we construct the exciton Hamiltonian for the Γ₆×Γ₈ excitons in theT _d -type material ZnTe represented by an 8×8 matrix including the influences of a finite wave vector and an external magnetic field. We diagonalize the Hamiltonian matrix to obtain the exciton states. Then the excitons are coupled to the electromagnetic radiation field thus giving the polariton states. The theoretical dispersion curves are fitted to the results of two-photon Raman scattering and reflection experiments in magnetic fields up to 22 T. From this fit we deduce precise values for the eigenergies, exciton masses,g-factors, and diamagnetic shifts.     

Zeeman spectroscopy of exciton bound to trigonal acceptor center in ZnTe

Zeeman effects have been measured for the A^c₁ line at 2.368 eV in ZnTe. The results are interpreted in terms of exciton recombination at a neutral acceptor center in a strong trigonal crystal field. The relevant g-factors are : g_e = -0.50 ± 0.05 for the electron ; g_h = +0.90 ± 0.05 for the hole.     

Excitation spectroscopy,Raman scattering and the temperature dependence of the luminescence in highly excited red HgI2

The luminescence of red HgI₂ is investigated as a function of temperature, excitation intensity and wavelength. At high excitation intensity and low temperature an “M-band” emission dominates. This M-band is assigned to biexciton decay and bound exciton scattering with acoustic phonons (“acoustic wing”), this assumption being supported by the results of excitation spectroscopy. The energy of the biexciton is determined to be (4661 ± 1) meV. From the evaluation of Raman spectra, the phonon energies (1.9, 3.1 and 14.0 ± 0.2) meV are found. At higher temperatures two lines are observed, one of which is ascribed to exciton-free carrier scattering. Position and line shape are in good agreement with theoretical results. The other emission line is found to be due to scattering involving excitons or carriers bound to lattice defects.     

Electromodulation spectroscopy of excitons: High field regime

The effects of electric field on excitons have been investigated experimentally by means of electroabsorption (EA). The behavior of excitons with ionization fields F_I of the same order of magnitude as or smaller than typical applied fields is reported. EA spectra associated with excitons in TlBr, PbI₂, BiI₃, trigonal Se, and α-monoclinic Se will illustrate this case. In this situation the EA signal arises principally from the effect on the exciton ground state, and no finer structure could be detected. The exciton ground state undergoes a shift to higher energies with the applied field. Characteristic dependences with field of the sizes, energy position of the peaks, and zero crossing points of the EA signals have been found. Estimates of exciton parameters can be readily obtained from the EA spectra. Unusual features of the exciton EA spectra PbI₂ are discussed. Qualitatively, at least, theoretical predictions are obeyed.     

Bound excitons in p-doped GaAs quantum wells

Photoluminescence attributed to excitons bound to neutral impurities has been observed from GaAs quantum wells in Al_xGa_1?xAs-GaAs heterostructures grown by molecular beam epitaxy. The quantum wells were either doped with [Be] ≈ 10¹⁷ cm^-3 or Zn-diffused. At low temperatures both single and multiple quantum wells exhibited this extrinsic luminescence which is ascribed to the radiative recombination of the n=1 ground state heavy hole exciton E_1h bound to a neutral acceptor A^o. The dissociation energy E_D of the A^o-E_1h complex is obtained directly from the measured separation of this extrinsic peak from the intrinsic E_1h free exciton peak. For 46Å wide GaAs wells, E_D=6.5meV and E_D decreases with increasing well width.     

The optical properties of Be,Mg and Zn-diffused gallium phosphide

Interest in the Ga-site acceptors Be and Mg was stimulated by the possibility that they might produce efficient luminescence on association with O, analogous to the well-known red Zn-O luminescence in GaP but at higher transition energy. Attention was directed to diffusion doping by Be and Mg of GaP O-doped during growth because the reactivity of Be and Mg with O renders double doping during crystal growth very difficult. Structured green donor-acceptor pair spectra were observed at 1.6°K from many Be-diffused crystals, yielding an accurate measure of (E_A)_BE, 50 ± 1 meV. Moderately efficient orange-red luminescence was also observed below ∼ 100 °K from these crystals, but the intensity of this luminescence decreased rapidly to negligible levels by ∼ 200°K. This luminescence also contains sharp structure at 1.6°K, of a form characteristic of the decay of excitons bound to complex centres. Many sharp phonon replicas occur, involving local modes as well as characteristic GaP modes. One set of no-phonon lines, at least, near 2.19 eV, shows zero-field splitting, luminescence decay times and behaviour in magnetic and external strain fields characteristic of exciton decay at a centre with <100>; or <111>-type symmetry axes, containing no extra electronic particles. The exciton state is split by 2.4 meV by J-J coupling, and the axial field of the centre splits the hole states by ∼ 1.0 meV. These bound excitons are specifically characteristics of diffused GaP and appear analogous to bound excitons observed below 2.12 eV in Zn-diffused GaP. It is probable that the relevant centres contain diffusion components such as Be or Zn interstitials and improbable that O_P is involved. By contrast, weak orange bound exciton luminescence observed in Mg-diffused GaP does involve O, presumably as O_P. No analysis of the magneto-optical behaviour of this Mg-related bound exciton was possible in our crystals, so its symmetry axis was not established. It is possible that this is the Mg_Ga-O_P bound exciton. If so, the two-fold reductions in the exciton localisation energy from ∼ 0.32 eV to ∼ 0.15 eV and in the mass of the Ga-site substituent has produced dramatic changes in the form of the phonon cooperation between the Zn-O and “Mg-O” excitons. The “Mg-O” exciton luminescence is not dominant in our crystals, even at low temperature. The exciton state is again split by a local crystal field as well as by J-J coupling, but here the former splitting is predominant; 2_∈0 = 3.9 meV, Δ = 0.60 meV.     

Optical orientation of donor-bound excitons in nanosized InP/InGaP islands

Spin splitting of optically active and inactive excitons in nanosized n-InP/InGaP islands has been revealed. Optically inactive states become manifest in polarized-luminescence spectra as a result of excitons being bound to neutral donors (or of the formation of the trion, a negatively charged exciton) in InP islands. The exchange-splitting energies of the optically active and inactive states have been determined. Fiz. Tverd. Tela (St. Petersburg) 40, 1745–1752 (September 1998)     

Observation of bound exciton and distant pair resonances in amorphous phosphorus

For the first time in an amorphous semiconductor magnetic resonance of a bound exciton is reported. ODMR investigations of amorphous phosphorous show that the luminescence consists of two bands, a low energy emission which is consistent with triple exciton recombination at IVAPs and a high energy emission due to electron-hole recombination at distant IVAPs. The triplet exciton has g = 2.13 ± 0.05, and the distant pair resonance occurs at g = 2.0 ± 0.02.     

The j-j coupling in bound excitons in the effective mass approximation

The j-j coupling of two holes in the bound exciton - neutral acceptor complexes in semiconductors with diamond or zinc blende structure is investigated in the effective mass approximation (EMA) for the first time. We find that the d-like wave function in the EMA generates an apparent j-j coupling, even when the short range interactions are omitted. Our estimates of the splitting suggest that the experimental data for excitons bound to Zn in GaAs, InP, and GaP can be explained in the EMA.