Distribution of recombination lifetimes in amorphous silicon

Light-induced ESR (LESR) and luminescence in aSi:H are studied in order to resolve a recent controversy over whether the low temperature recombination is geminate or non-geminate. New transient measurements find that at moderate excitation intensities, luminescence is predominately monomolecular, whereas LESR is not. We show that the different behavior occurs because there is a very broad distribution of decay times for geminate electron-hole pairs. LESR is dominated by a small fraction of the pairs which have a very long decay time and which therefore slowly generate a non-geminate distribution. Luminescence is dominated by the closer geminate pairs that recombine quickly.     

Electroluminescence and its excitation mechanism of SiOx films deposited by electron-beam evaporation

Blue electroluminescence from SiO_x films deposited by electron beam evaporation was observed. This blue emission blueshifted from 450 to 410 nm with increasing applied voltage. The dependences of blue emission on applied voltage, frequency and conduction current were studied. Our experimental data support that blue emission from SiO_x films is the result of both recombination of charge carriers injected from opposite electrodes and impact excitation of hot electrons, the recombination of carriers injected is dominant in low and medium electric fields but hot electron impact excitation is dominant under high electric fields.     

Laser excitation induced photoluminescence linewidth reduction in molecular beam epitaxial InAlAs layers grown on InP substrates

An experimental investigation is presented on the influence of laser excitation on the photoluminescence (PL) linewidth in InAlAs layers grown lattice matched to InP substrates by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). Measurements performed on silicon-doped samples and samples grown at different arsenic overpressures (V/III flux ratio) showed that the linewidth decreases with increasing laser excitation power. A model describing an unbalanced migration of photo-generated charge carriers due to the presence of clusters is proposed to explain the effect of the linewidth reduction. Also, the trend of the linewidth decrease becomes more pronounced in InAlAs samples with higher silicon doping concentrations and those grown at higher V/III ratios. Samples with higher silicon-doping concentrations have broader linewidths which could be the result of poorer alloy quality due to the presence of disorder (S. F. Yoon et al., J. Appl. Phys. 78, 1812 (1995)). A similar trend of linewidth reduction was observed at temperatures as high as 30 K. Our results show that such a measurement of linewidth vs. laser excitation power can be used as a supplementary method for InAlAs material characterization.     

Anomalous optical transitions in AlInGaN/GaN heterostructures grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition

Using temperature-dependent photoluminescence (PL) measurements, we report a comprehensive study on optical transitions in Al_yIn_xGa_1−x−yN epilayer with target composition, x=0.01 and y=0.07 and varying epilayer thickness of 40, 65 and 100 nm. In these quaternary alloys, we have observed an anomalous PL temperature dependence such as an S-shape band-edge PL peak shift and a W-shape spectral broadening with an increase in temperature. With an increase in excitation power density, the emission peak from the AlInGaN epilayers shows a blue shift at 100 K and a substantial red shift at room temperature. This is attributed to the localization of excitons at the band-tail states at low temperature. Compared to 40 and 65 nm thick epilayers, the initial blue shift observed with low excitation power from 100 nm thick AlInGaN epilayer at room temperature is caused by the existence of deeper localized states due to confinement effects arising from higher In and Al incorporation. The subsequent red shift of the PL peak can be attributed by free motion of delocalized carriers that leads to bandgap renormalization by screening. Due to competing effects of exciton and free carrier recombination processes, such behavior of optical transitions leads to two different values of exponent ‘k’ in the fitting of PL emission intensity as a function of excitation power.     

Bistable charge states in a photoexcited quasi-two-dimensional electron-hole system

The luminescence spectra of GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells (QWs) with low-density quasi-two-dimensional electron and hole channels were studied. It was demonstrated that, at temperatures below some critical value (T _c ～30 K) and for an excitation power lying in a certain temperature-dependent range, two metastable charge states with two-dimensional charge densities differing in both magnitude and sign can occur in the system under the same conditions. The obtained experimental data agree well with the mathematical model allowing for the transfer of photoexcited carriers to the barrier followed by their tunneling into QW.     

Picosecond dynamics of quantum structure carriers measured by time resolved photoinduced intersubband absorption

A novel interband-pump intersubband-probe technique is developed in order to study the dynamics of photogenerated carriers and excitons in GaAs/AlGaAs superlattices by time resolved photoinduced absorption. The photogenerated population reaches a thermal distribution a few picoseconds after the excitation. The time dependence of the intersubband absorption strength and its time resolved excitation spectra yield a measure for the time it takes for that population to cool first to the lattice temperature and then to radiatively decay. The first time is roughly 70-100 ps depending on the excess energy with which the photogenerated carriers are created. The second is on a sub-nanosecond scale and depends linearly on the lattice temperature.     

Effect of exciton condensation on the optical refraction index of CdS

Detailed measurements of the transmission spectrum of CdS under high pumping excitation were performed. A variation of the refractive index with increasing excitation power is observed. This we attribute to the increase in the number of photoinjected carriers. A saturation of the effect is observed for intensities above a certain level. A simple model is used to evaluate the concentration of photoinjected carriers the saturated regime which turns out to be approximately 1.4 x 10¹⁸ cm^-3. It is shown that the results are compatible with the assumption of formation of an electron- hole liquid (EHL) in CdS.     

Influences of excitation power and temperature on photoluminescence in phase-separated InGaN quantum wells

The photoluminescence(PL) properties of a green and blue light-emitting InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well structure with a strong phase separated into quasi-quantum dots(QDs) and an InGaN matrix in the InGaN epilayer are investigated.The excitation power dependences of QD-related green emissions(P_D) and matrix-related blue emissions(P_M) in the low excitation power range of the PL peak energy and line-width indicate that at 6 K both P_m and P_D are dominated by the combined action of Coulomb screening and localized state filling effect.However,at 300 K,P_m is dominated by the non-radiative recombination of the carriers in the InGaN matrix,while P_D is influenced by the carriers transferred from the shallower QDs to deeper QDs by tunnelling.This is consistent with the excitation power dependence of the PL efficiency for the emission.     

Photoconductivity in polyacetylene

The results of steady state photoconductivity experiments on cis- and trans-(CH)_x are interpreted in terms of charged solitons, photogenerated either directly (threshold hv = 4Δ/π) or indirectly through coupling of the lattice to electron-hole pair excitations (hv ? 2Δ). The transient photocurrent, after laser pulse excitation, decays as a power law, I(t) ? t^?0.6, suggesting dispersive transport of the photogenerated carriers.     

Luminescence and ESR studies of defects in hydrogenated amorphous silicon

New experimental information on luminescence and light induced ESR (LESR) in hydrogenated amorphous silicon is described. We demonstrate that the two experiments involve identical recombination transitions, and identify two separate processes. One process involves defect states, and from the doping dependence of LESR we deduce that the electronically active defects are dangling bonds with positive electronic correlation energy.     

On the role of the dangling bond as a radiative centre in a-Si:H

A comparison of recent ODMR results a-Si : H with previously reported ESR and LESR measurements suggests that a principal radiative electron centre has g=2.0055 and may therefore be identified as the dangling board. Our results suggest that the dangling bond (DB) can participate in two distinct PL transitions, centred near 1.25 eV and 0.9 eV, which are present to a measurable extent in all samples examined, in the medium-to-high quantum efficiency range (η_PL ～ 0.1?1.0). This conclusion is in contrast with the generally accepted role of the dangling bond in a-Si : H as primarily a non-radiative recombination centre, but is consistent with a variety of data from other experimental techniques.     

Photoluminescence dynamics due to exciton and free carrier transport in GaAs/AlAs superlattices

Photogenerated carrier transfer is investigated in a set of three GaAs/AlAs short-period superlattices (SPSs) with different barrier thicknesses by steady-state and time-resolved photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy at 15–20 K as a function of excitation power. The tunneling transport of carriers is evaluated by detecting excitonic PL signals from an embedded GaAs single quantum well (SQW) in the middle of the SPS layer. We find that, as the barrier thickness is decreased, the PL intensity ratio of SQW/SPS increases systematically due to enhanced tunneling efficiencies of both electrons and holes. However, the PL intensity ratio significantly increases with decreases in the excitation power by more than two orders of the magnitude. We attribute the enhanced PL intensity of SQW relative to the SPS to the faster transport of electrons that can recombine with residual holes to form excitons in SQW. The PL dynamics of SQW and SPS thus shows unique density-dependent PL intensity and time behaviors due to variations in relative amounts of excitons and free carriers to be transported into the SQW layer.     

Excitation of Autoionization States and Electronic Stopping Powers at Collisions of Slow Ions with a Solid

It has been shown that the excitation of autoionization states at collisions of keV ions with a solid is decisive for inelastic energy loss and, correspondingly, the electronic stopping power dE/dx. It has been proposed to estimate the electronic stopping power dE/dx using the relation of cross sections for the excitation of autoionization states to ionization cross sections. When ionization cross sections are unknown, scaling is used to calculate ionization cross sections at the excitation of the L and M shells. A threshold dependence of the electronic stopping power dE/dx on the energy of bombarding ions has been predicted.     

Strongly nonlinear luminescence in oxidized porous silicon films

Partially oxidized free-standing porous silicon films show a strongly superlinear increase in photoluminescence (PL) intensity above a threshold cw excitation intensity of 10 W/cm². The PL-intensity increase can be expressed by a power law with n9 as a function of the excitation intensity. The PL-peak wavelength of this emission is slightly redshifted from that at low-excitation levels. These changes are fully reversible and reproducible, but not observed in samples on substrate. We attribute this behavior to thermal reexcitation of carriers trapped at the dangling bond states in initially nonluminescent Si nanocrystallites.     

Femtosecond luminescence measurements in GaAs

We report luminescence measurements in GaAs with femtosecond time resolution. This represents more than an order-of-magnitude improvement over previous luminescence measurements and allows us to study initial relaxation processes of photoexcited carriers. We show that the relaxation of photoexcited carriers to the band extrema is delayed by 750 fsec when the excitation density is reduced from 3 × 10¹⁸ cm^-3 to 1 × 10¹⁷ cm^-3. We have measured luminescence rise and decay curves at various photon energies ranging from 1.45 eV to 1.70 eV. These results are discussed in terms of carrier-carrier and carrier-phonon interactions.     

EHD size distribution in pure Ge at pulse optical excitation

The cyclotron resonance (CR) kinetics of free carriers surrounding electron-hole drops (EHD) was investigated in pure Ge (N_D = N_A = 10¹¹cm^?3). We observed the fast decay of the CR amplitude at the long delay time after the excitation pulse [1], that may be connected with intense evaporation of the drops, when the EHD radius has achieved the critical value. The method for investigation of EHD size distribution was proposed for case of pulse excitation. The Gaussian EHD size distribution has been found.     

Carrier scattering by Auger mechanism in a single quantum wire

We report on time-resolved microphotoluminescence experiments in a single GaAs/GaAlAs V-shaped quantum wire as a function of optical excitation intensity. At low pump power we observe that excitons are localized in quantum boxes formed by the local potential minima existing along the wire axis. As the pump power is increased, state filling of the lowest lying levels of the boxes appears. When two carriers occupy the first excited level of the box, a very efficient Auger scattering occurs, leading to a transfer of carriers from one box to another neighbouring one. The intradot Auger scattering time has been measured and is of the same order of magnitude as the LA-phonon emission rate. Received 5 February 2001     

Visible nonlinear band-edge luminescence in ZnSe and CdS excited by a mid-infrared free-electron laser

Visible nonlinear band-edge luminescence in ZnSe and CdS bulk crystals was observed upon excitation by a mid-infrared free-electron laser (mid-IR FEL) at approximately 9 mm. The emission intensity is proportional to the 74th and 45th powers of the excitation intensity for ZnSe and CdS, respectively. For ZnSe, the temporal profile of the emission intensity does not follow the profile of the excitation macropulse of the FEL, but sharply rises and decays only at the maximum of the macropulse profile. These features are in marked contrast to those of a previous report, where the emission profile follows that of the macropulse, and the emission intensity scales with the 4th power of the excitation intensity. The experimental observations were reproduced by a numerical simulation based on impact ionization and avalanche ionization by electrons accelerated by the optical electric field of the FEL. The large nonlinearity in the bandedge emission comes from the macropulse temporal structure, which consists of micropulses densely spaced to allow excited carriers to survive when the next micropulse arrives. They work as seed carriers in the next carrier multiplication step.     

Temperature dependence of photoluminescence intensity of self-assembled CdTe quantum dots in the ZnTe matrix under different excitation conditions

The temperature dependence of the integrated photoluminescence intensity of nanometer-sized ZnTe/CdTe/ZnTe quantum wells has been investigated under different excitation conditions. It has been shown that the character of thermal decay of the luminescence intensity depends on the frequency of the exciting light and, under the above-barrier excitation, strongly depends on the optical excitation power density. It has been found that an increase in the excitation intensity leads to a saturation of thermal quenching of the luminescence in the low-temperature range. The conclusion has been drawn that this behavior reflects the saturation of nonradiative recombination centers with photoexcited carriers.