Optical absorption edge in doped and undoped ZnSe crystals

The optical absorption near the fundamental edge has been investigated for different types of doped and undoped cubic ZnSe crystals. Crystals grown from the vapour phase, with and without doping, and crystals grown by the chemical transport technique are compared.Results of absorption coefficient measurements made from 77 to 313 LK are discussed and it is shown that for undoped samples, the absorption tail is dominated by electrons-phonons interactions and Urbach's rule is nearly verified, whereas for doped samples the influence of defects is preponderant.     

Optical detectors on GaSe and InSe layered crystals

Fast uncooled GaSe and InSe detectors that can record ultrashort (10^?12–10^?9 s) laser pulses in the visual and near-IR ranges are developed. The quick response of the detectors is due to rapid recombination channels with a high capture cross section present in the crystals.     

Trapping centers in undoped GaS layered single crystals

Nominally undoped p-GaS layered single crystals were grown using the Bridgman technique. Thermally stimulated current measurements in the temperature range 10–300 K were performed at a heating rate of 0.10 K/s. The analysis of the data revealed six trap levels at 0.05, 0.06, 0.12, 0.63, 0.71, and 0.75 eV. The calculations for these traps yielded 1.2×10^-21, 2.9×10^-23, 2.4×10^-21, 8.0×10^-9, 1.9×10^-9 and 4.3×10^-10 cm² for the capture cross sections and 1.6×10¹³, 5.0×10¹², 7.3×10¹², 1.2×10¹⁴, 8.9×10¹³ and 2.6×10¹³ cm^-3 for the concentrations, respectively. PACS 71.55.-i; 72.20.Jv; 72.80.Jc     

Temperature-dependent optical properties of GaSe layered single crystals

Optical properties of GaSe single crystals have been investigated using temperature-dependent transmission and room temperature reflection measurements in the wavelength range of 380–1100 nm. The analysis of the absorption data at room temperature showed the existence of indirect transitions in the crystal with energy band gap of 1.98 eV. Temperature dependence of the transmission measurements revealed the shift of the absorption edge toward lower energy as temperature is increased from 10 to 280 K. The rate of change of the indirect band gap was found as γ = ?6.6 × 10^?4 eV/K from the analysis of experimental data under the light of theoretical relation giving the band gap energy as a function of temperature. The absolute zero value of the band gap energy and Debye temperature were calculated from the same analysis. The Wemple–DiDomenico single-effective-oscillator model applied to refractive index dispersion data was used to determine the oscillator energy, dispersion energy, oscillator strength and zero-frequency refractive index values.     

Luminescence spectra of doped and undoped lead tungstate crystals

TL spectra of undoped lead tungstate crystals exhibit glow peaks at 30 v K and 85 v K centred at 440 v nm, plus a peak at 50 v K at 530 v nm in an annealed sample. Annealing adds a 170 v K peak. Trivalent dopants of La 3+ and Y 3+ reduce the green luminescence, and Nb 5+ introduces a peak near 100 v K centred at 530 v nm; Sb introduces features between 40 v K and 90 v K and 150 and 180 v K. The luminescence emissions around 50 v K may be attributed to complex intrinsic defect centres, including (WO 4 ) m 3 . Of the four dopants studied in the present research, Sb +5 has the highest luminescence intensity. CL spectra show interesting anomalies near 170 v K which are linked to a phase change of water/ice nanoparticles trapped at dislocations.     

Bleaching in the region of exciton resonance of layered GaSe crystals

Light absorption in the region of exciton resonance of GaSe crystal is studied experimentally at high levels of optical excitation. A picosecond YAG:Nd³⁺ laser emitting 30-ps light pulses and a dye laser with a pulse width of ～3 ns tunable within the range 594–643 nm were used as light sources. It was found that, at high levels of optical excitation, the exciton absorption line of the GaSe crystal disappeared, which was attributed to increasing exciton density with arising mechanisms of their decay: exciton-exciton interactions and screening of excitons by the free charge-carrier plasma. It is shown that these mechanisms are also responsible for the arising new emission band in the long-wavelength region of the photoluminescence spectrum.     

Age-induced oxide on cleaved surface of layered GaSe single crystals

It is shown that a long-term keeping of a layered gallium monoselenide at room temperature results in formation of the intrinsic oxide at a cleaved surface of semiconductor. It is found that the chemical compositions of the intrinsic oxide at the surfaces of the intentionally undoped and doped samples of GaSe are different. The electrical properties of the GaSe-intrinsic oxide system are presented. It is established that intrinsic oxide films at the surface of GaSe are characterized by current instability with N-type current-voltage characteristic. The influence of relative humidity on changes of capacitance and surface resistivity of the intrinsic oxide is also discussed.     

Low-temperature thermoluminescence study of GaSe:Mn layered single crystals

Mangan doped GaSe single crystals have been studied by thermoluminescence measurements performed with various heating rates between 0.4 and 1.0 K/s in the temperature range of 10?300 K. Thermoluminescence spectra exhibited four distinguishable peaks having maximum temperatures at 47, 102, 139 and 191 K revealing the existence of trapping levels in the crystals. Curve fitting and initial rise methods were applied to observed peaks to determine the activation energies of four trapping levels. Capture cross-sections of each level were also evaluated using the obtained energy values. Moreover, heating rate dependencies of the obtained peaks were investigated. It was shown that increase in the heating rate resulted in the decrease in thermoluminescence intensity and shift of the peak maximum temperatures to higher values. Discrete, single trap behaviour was established for acceptor level related with the peak at 191 K by analysing the sequentially obtained peaks with different stopping temperatures between 15 and 65 K.     

Nonlinear magnetooptical absorption in a semiconductor

The influence of an external magnetic field on the optical characteristics of the exciton spectra of a semiconductor is studied. It is shown that the diamagnetic shift of the exciton level essentially changes the dynamics of the exciton absorption. The combination of the excitonic and magnetic properties of a crystal in the range of excitonic frequencies gives new opportunities to control the bistable behavior of the crystal. It is revealed that the magnetooptical response of the semiconductor to the laser field gives rise to bistable loops with respect to both the intensity of the incident light and the magnitude of the magnetic field.     

Raman spectra of undoped and uranium doped CaF2 single crystals

Raman scattering experiments for nominally pure and uranium doped CaF2 single crystals were presented.In all crystals, the Raman active T2g vibration mode of CaF2 was observed, whose frequency shift and fullwidth at half-maximum (FWHM) broadening correspond well with defects and impurities in CaF2 lattice.Additional Raman peaks develop in nominally pure CaF2 with high etch pits density and U6+:CaF2crystals. Part of additional Raman peaks in the experimental results, which are assumed due to vibration modes from F- interstitials and vacancies, are in well agreement with the theoretical predications by employing the Green-function formulation.     

Measurement of mass attenuation coefficients for holmium doped and undoped layered semiconductors InSe at different energies and the validity of mixture rule for crystals around the absorption edge

The mass attenuation coefficients of InSe and InSe having different holmium concentrations were measured in the energy region 15.746-40.930 keV using a Si(Li) detector. InSe and InSe:holmium(0.0025), InSe:holmium(0.0050), InSe:holmium(0.025) and InSe:holmium(0.05) crystals were grown by the Bridgman-Stocbarger method. The measured values are compared with the theoretical ones obtained using WinXcom which is a Windows version of XCOM. The measurement of mass attenuation coefficients of ternary semiconductors is very important because of its use in technology.     

Effect of gamma irradiation on undoped and uranium doped calcium fluoride crystals

Color centers in undoped and U³⁺-doped CaF₂ crystals induced by γ-irradiation with different doses were studied by differential absorption and Raman spectra. Multiple color centers and conversion among them were caused in undoped CaF₂ with the creation of radiation defects. In U³⁺:CaF₂ crystal, trivalent uranium was demonstrated to act as hole trap in the process of γ-irradiation, which was ionized to tetravalent. This process was accompanied by the formation of F₂⁺ centers, but without additional background absorption due to radiation defects.     

Differential magnetoreflection spectroscopy of doped and undoped II–VI semiconductor quantum wells

A method has been developed for recording and analyzing the differential magnetoreflection (magnetotransmission) spectra of semiconductor structures with quantum wells. The method was used to determine the exciton g-factor in semimagnetic CdTe/(Cd, Mn)Te heterostructures with quantum wells. In nonmagnetic structures with quantum wells containing a two-dimensional electron gas, the excitonic damping depends on the spin state of the exciton. This effect is explained by the exchange contribution to exciton-electron scattering. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 65, No. 1, 44–49 (10 January 1997)     

Radiative transitions of layered semiconductor GaS doped with P

Photoluminescence (PL) measurement has been made on P-doped p-GaS. The 2.35 and 2.12 eV emission bands are observed in the PL spectrum of P-doped sample at 77 K. The temperature dependence of full-width at half-maximum and the shape of the PL spectrum of the 2.12 eV emission band are characterized by the recombination mechanism of the configurational coordinate model. It is found that the 2.12 eV emission band is related to the complex center of vacancy and acceptor due to P atoms. It is found from the presence of the complex center that the P-doped samples include a high concentration of defects or defect complexes.     

Electrically active defects in BiSiO crystals undoped and doped with Cr and Mn ions

The influence of doping of Bi₁₂SiO₂₀ (BSO) with chromium and manganese ions on the thermal depolarization currents (TDCs) is investigated. Measurements are performed in the temperature interval 300–800 K as the preliminary polarization temperature is varied in the range T _p=300–523 K. It is shown that doping significantly alters the structure of the TDC spectra. The Cr and Mn ions produce a set of new peaks over the entire investigated temperature range. The thermal activation energies are 0.85–1.98 eV (BSO:Cr) and 0.58–1.72 eV (BSO:Mn). Another consequence of doping is an increase in the amplitudes of the peaks and the charge accumulated during preliminary polarization. Fiz. Tverd. Tela (St. Petersburg) 40, 472–474 (March 1998)     

Two-photon absorption coefficient dichroism in Ⅱ-Ⅵ semiconductor crystals

Considering two beams propagate in semiconductor crystal, this paper discusses the polarization dependence of pump beam-induced intensity attenuation of probe beam due to two-photon absorption (TPA). Numerical calculation and experimental measurement demonstrate that TPA coefficient is polarization dependent. For homogeneous materials, probe beam attenuation arises from the imaginary part of diagonal and off-diagonal components of third-order nonlinear susceptibilities.     

Spectral anisotropy of a photoresponse from heterojunctions based on GaSe and InSe layered crystals

The object of investigation is photoresponse spectra taken from the cleaved end face of heterojunctions formed by GaSe and InSe anisotropic crystals. Spectra taken from the as-prepared and chemically processed faces of the heterojunctions are compared. A modified method of growing GaSe crystals with a virgin end face is suggested, and the surface of GaSe crystals thus grown is examined by atomic force microscopy.     

Nonlinear optical properties of undoped and doped with Zr and Nb KTiOPO<Subscript>4</Subscript> crystals

The structure of the ferroelectric phase of undoped KTiOPO₄ and its solid solutions with zirconium and niobium is studied from first principles within the density functional theory. The second-order nonlinear susceptibility tensor and the spontaneous polarization of these materials are obtained. It is shown that an improvement in nonlinear optical properties of KTiOPO₄ upon doping it with Zr and Nb cannot be explained by a systematic change in the composition of crystals and is apparently associated with the occurrence of defects. Possible structures of such defects are discussed.     

Nonlinear dynamics of doped semiconductor quantum dot lasers

We discuss the influence of wetting layer doping on the turn-on dynamics of a quantum dot (QD) laser by using a microscopically based rate equation model which separately treats the dynamics of electrons and holes. As the carrier-carrier scattering rates depend nonlinearly on the wetting layer carrier densities we observe drastic changes of relaxation oscillation frequency and damping if the wetting layer is doped. We gain insight into the nonlinear dynamics of the QD laser by a detailed analysis of various sections of the five-dimensional phase space focusing on changes in the coupling between QD electron and holes dynamics.     

Nonlinear refraction of undoped and Fe-doped KTiOAsO4 crystals in the femtosecond regime

The third-order optical nonlinearities in undoped and Fe-doped KTA crystals have been measured using the Z-scan technique with femtosecond pulses at 780-nm wavelength. The nonlinear refractive index is determined to be 1.7×10⁻¹⁵ cm²/W and 0,9×10⁻¹⁵ cm²/W for undoped and Fe-doped KTA, respectively. No two-photon absorption occurs in these crystals. It is shown that doping with Fe₂O₃ could weaken refractive nonlinearity of KTA, suggesting that Fe:KTA will improve the performance of KTA in high-intensity femtosecond laser applications. In addition, the measured nonlinear index of refraction in KTA crystals is about five times lower than that predicted by the two-band theory. One of the reasons for the discrepancy is given as the applicable limit of the simple theory in which a two-parabolic band model has been assumed in the analysis. Received: 3 June 1999 / Published online: 20 October 1999