Excitation spectra of donor-acceptor pair photoluminescence in ZnTe

Photoluminescence excitation spectra of donor-acceptor pairs have been observed in phosphorus doped ZnTe. Binding energies of the donor and the acceptor is estimated from the spectra. Emission spectra measured under below-band-gap excitation showed sharp bands superimposed with a broad emission band. The result indicates the existence of two decay processes under the below-band-gap excitation: (1) recombination of an electron and a hole trapped on a given D-A pair, and (2) recombination of D-A pairs with various distances for which bound electrons are formed via conduction band.