A PTIS study of quenched-in acceptors in germanium

The shallow acceptors produced in germanium crystals by quenching from 820–925 C have been studied for the first time using Photo-Thermal Ionization Spectroscopy (PTIS). We have found two acceptor-continua, which correspond to the E_v + 8.4 meV and E_v + 12 meV levels observed in earlier Hall measurements. With the lower energy continuum there are associated two previously unobserved hydrogenic acceptors. They are shallower than any known acceptor in germanium: their ionization energies are 8.69 ±0.01 meV and 9.48 ±0.01 meV. We attribute the acceptors to two different defects because of differences in their creation and annealing behaviour. No discrete lines were found to be associated with the higher energy continuum. We estimate the acceptor ionization energy to be about 14 meV. Finally, we have observed a number of as yet unexplained negative lines superimposed on both acceptor-continua.     

DLTS of grown-in dislocations in p- and n- type high-purity germanium

Deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) results of p- and n-type high-purity germanium, containing a large density of grown-in dislocations are presented. The measurements reveal the presence of at least three energy bands in the bandgap of the material, which are related with dislocations. Two continua are of acceptor type and situated around E_v + 0.025 eV and E_v + 0.1 eV respectively. The third one occurs in n-type Ge and has an average activation energy of E_c ? 0.09 eV. The diode capacitance of the samples shows a characteristic drop with increasing temperature; a model for this phenomenon is presented which takes account of the decrease of the effective diode area due to the dislocations.     

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.     

Far-infrared recombination radiation from impact-ionized donors in germanium

We studied the far-infrared emission spectrum resulting from recombination of an electron with an ionized impurity of As and Sb in germanium under impact ionization at liquid, helium temperatures. The emission peaks at the position corresponding to the transition from the 2p _± excited state to the ground state. This observation indicates that recombination occurs through the capture by the excited states of the donor impurity, which is consistent with the cascade trap model. The intensity of emission radiation is of the order of 10⁻⁷ watts for the excitation power of about one watt, which implies a dominant process of recombination to be accompanied by phonon emission.     

Low-temperature intracenter relaxation times of shallow donors in germanium

The relaxation times of localized states of antimony donors in unstrained and strained germanium uniaxially compressed along the [111] crystallographic direction are measured at cryogenic temperatures. The measurements are carried out in a single-wavelength pump–probe setup using radiation from the Novosibirsk free electron laser (NovoFEL). The relaxation times in unstrained crystals depend on the temperature and excitation photon energy. Measurements in strained crystals are carried out under stress bar S > 300, in which case the ground-state wavefunction is formed by states belonging to a single valley in the germanium conduction band. It is shown that the application of uniaxial strain leads to an increase in the relaxation time, which is explained by a decrease in the number of relaxation channels.     

Saturation of ionization edge absorption by donors in germanium

A study of saturation of the absorption and photoconductivity of Sb and P donors in Ge for radiation of 90 m wavelength, i.e., of energy very closely above their ionization edges is presented at T=9.3 K. Under these conditions negligible heating by the excess radiation energy is expected, which provides a convenient opportunity to study the kinetics of photoionization and recombination. From these measurements we have determined the donor capture cross section of electrons at 9.3 K to be _c=(1.2±0.7)×10^–12cm^–2, and the relaxation time from the 2s to the ground state as ₂₁=(5.8±1.0)×10^–10s. The saturation intensity of the absorption coefficient is around three orders of magnitude higher than the saturation intensity of the photoconductivity. We explain the nonlinear photoconductivity by the Debye-Conwell dependence of the mobility on the number of photoionized donors and compensating acceptors.     

Diamagnetic and zeeman shifts of the ground state of arsenic donors in germanium

The technique of four-wave mixing spectroscopy has been utilized to study the magnetic field dependence of the valley-orbit splitting, 4△(B), of As donors in Ge at 1.8°K for ⊥ [111]. The upper ground level, ls(T₂), splits into two levels, one of “high” and the other of “low” diamagnetism. For donor concentration N_D ? 5 × 10¹⁵ cm^-3 we have measured the diamagnetism and g-factor for the high diamagnetism level (g ? 1.07) as a function of (< 7 T). Transitions originating from both spin-up and spin-down levels are observed, indicating that the spins are heated during the 100 n-sec laser pulse. Excellent agreement between measured and theoretical values of 4▽(B) is found (employing no adjustable parameters) if magnetic field compression of the wavefunction is taken into account.     

Phase separation in oxygen-doped cuprates

Experimental investigations of phase separation in high-T_c cuprates are reviewed with special emphasis on recent results obtained on doped La₂CuO_4+x single crystals. Particular attention is paid to the magnetic properties. The experiments give very strong evidence that magnetic polarons are responsible for macroscopic phase separation observed in La₂CuO_4+x for x>0.     

Transient distortion and DLTS

It is shown theoretically that correlation methods of deep level transient spectroscopy give results sensitive to thermal capture effects. In thermal emission studies, the apparent trap depth depends on the free-carrier concentration.     

Temperature dependent exchange narrowing of line width in EPR on interacting donors in germanium and silicon

An expression has been derived for the temperature dependent exchange integral for a pair of interacting shallow donors substituted in a dielectric material. This has been achieved by taking into account the phonon induced mixing of excited orbital states with the ground orbital states of the impurity centres. The results have been used to explain the temperature narrowing of the EPR line width observed by some workers in phosphorus doped germanium at low temperatures. Good agreement between theory and experimental results seems to favour the proposed mechanism in preference to one of motional narrowing due to hopping.     

Impurity state electroabsorption studies in oxygen-doped GaAs

Electroabsorption measurements at 300 K made within the band gap on high resistivity GaAs:O are reported. For a crystal with the Fermi level at 0.54 eV, major structure has been detected at 0.52, 0.57, 0.67, 0.75, 0.87, 0.93, 1.03, 1.12, 1.25, 1.36, and 1.39 eV. The 0.67 eV peak appears only in the second harmonic spectrum, indicating no change in permanent dipole for this transition. Polarized light, lock-in amplifier phase angle, and applied field variation data are presented.     

Multi-exponential analysis of DLTS

Deep-level transient spectroscopy (DLTS), which is widely used to characterize deep impurity centers in semiconductors, assumes a single exponential wave form for the transient junction capacitance. When there are several closely spaced energy levels this assumption is no more valid, and the conventional DLTS may lead to errorneous results. To overcome this difficulty we propose here a novel method which we call the multi-exponential DLTS(MEDLTS). The transient wave form of the junction capacitance is directly analysed into multi-exponential compouents using the nonlinear least-squares analysis program DISCRETE developed by Provencher. The resolved time constants of these components are then displayed in the form of aT ²–1/T plot. According to the results of simulation with various parameters MEDLTS is shown quite effective to resolve closely spaced energy levels which can not be resolved by the conventional DLTS. As an example of the application of this method deep levels in Si: Au were investigated. The results have shown that a single peak in conventional DLTS actually consists of two adjacent levels with activation energies and capture cross-sectionsE _B1=0.49 eV, _B1=1.1×10^–14cm² andE _B2=0.46 eV, _B2=1.3×10^–15 cm² and with amplitude ratio 11.     

μ+ diffusion and trapping in high purity and oxygen-doped Nb

Data are presented for the temperature dependence of the muon depolarization rate between 10 K and 120 K for three samples of niobium of varying. purity. Two samples, each containing approximately 200 ppm substitutional Ta and interstitial concentrations of 10 ppm and 560 ppm (mostly O), respectively, were studied. A third sample containing only 3 ppm Ta and an estimated 10 ppm total interstitial impurities was also measured. The results indicate that even at the lowest temperatures studied the depolarization of the muon is dominated by traps associated with impurities.This work was supported by the U. S. Department of Energy     

DLTS investigation of GaP under hydrostatic pressure

Abstract

Deep Level Transient Spectroscopy (DLTS) was applied to nitrogen related deep electron trap 0.4 eV in green emitting diodes of GaP under hydrostatic pressure. The pressure coefficient of the level energy is determinated as equal -31 meV/kbar with respect to the valence band edge.     

Determination of radiation-defect symmetry by high-resolution Laplace DLTS

It has been shown for the first time that implementation of the L-curve approach to choose the regularization parameter for Laplace DLTS significantly increases the reliability of the data obtained. The possibility of considerable reduction of the mechanical stress necessary for energy level splitting in determination of the defect symmetry due to the increase in the Laplace DLTS resolution is shown by the example of the wellknown point radiation defect: oxygen-vacancy complex (A center) in a CzSi crystal.     

Investigation of acceptor states in ZnO by junction DLTS

We have realized a p-type ZnO surface layer by N⁺ ion implantation of a high quality ZnO wafer and subsequent annealing. The conduction type of this surface layer was revealed by scanning capacitance microscopy. Rectifying current–voltage characteristics for processed devices were coherent with the existence of an internal pn junction. Deep donor- and acceptor-like defects were investigated by junction deep level transient spectroscopy. The donor-like levels correspond to those commonly observed for E1 and E3 defects. The acceptor states resolved have thermal activation energies of about 150 meV and 280 meV, respectively.     

Electron traps and positive DLTS signals in VPE GaAs MESFETs

Capacitance DLTS measurements have been performed in VPE GaAs MESFETs prepared on Bridgman Cr-doped and LEC undoped semi-insulating substrates. A band of electron traps not intrinsically related to the VPE growth process and accumulating near the metal (gate) — semiconductor interface was detected in all the samples. Deeper regions into the channel were free from any detectable trap. Near pinch-off conditions, a positive capacitance signal was found to dominate the DLTS spectra only in the case of samples prepared on Cr-doped substrates. The hypothesis of this positive transient being related to changes in the occupation of surface states in the ungated surface access regions has been checked by comparing experimental and calculated dependencies of the signal amplitude on reverse gate voltage. Unexplained discrepancies, together with the absence of positive signal in MESFETs prepared on LEC undoped substrates, suggest the possibility of hole emission from hole traps within the bulk of the device.