Ferromagnetism below the stoner limit in La-doped SrB6

Spin-polarized band calculations for LaSr7B48 show a weak ferromagnetic state. This is despite a low density of states (DOS) and a low Stoner factor. The reason for the magnetic state is found to be associated with a gain in potential energy in addition to the exchange energy, as a spin splitting is imposed. A DOS with an impuritylike La band is essential for this effect. It makes a correction to the Stoner factor and provides an explanation of the recently observed weak ferromagnetism in doped hexaborides.     

Autosolitons in electron-hole plasma in p-Ge

The self-organization of an electron-hole plasma (EHP) heated by an electric field in pure p-Ge samples at T = 77 K has been studied experimentally. The derived current-voltage characteristics (CVCs) and the distributions of the electric field and IR emission of the hot carriers along the samples show that the segments of a steep rise or the S-shaped segments of the CVCs in samples with n-p junctions are related to the formation of longitudinal thermal-diffusion autosolitons (AS_‖); as a result, thin (d = 2–20 μm in diameter), melted-through current channels appear. Such AS_‖ are formed at high EHP densities (n ≥ 1 × 10¹⁶ cm⁻³), when the electron-hole scattering is dominant, and at electron temperatures T _e = (2–4.5)T ₀ (T ₀ is the lattice temperature). The saturation segments and the N-shaped segments in the CVCs are attributable to the generation of transverse thermal-diffusion high-field autosolitons (AS_⊥) in the form of narrow strata with electric field strengths = 1–20 kV cm⁻¹. High-field AS_⊥ are formed at EHP densities n = 5 × 10¹³−1 × 10¹⁶ cm⁻³, when the electron-phonon scattering is dominant, and at electron temperatures T _e ∼ Θ ≥ 5T ₀ (Θ is the Debye temperature). The generated longitudinal and transverse autosolitons have high temperatures (T _e ≥ 1000 K) and reduced carrier densities and can exist simultaneously in different parts of the sample. Original Russian Text ? M.N. Vinoslavskiĭ, P.A. Belevskii, A.V. Kravchenko, 2006, published in Zhurnal éksperimental’noĭ i Teoreticheskoĭ Fiziki, 2006, Vol. 129, No. 3, pp. 477–492.     

Excitons and electron-hole plasma in InSe

The spontaneous emission from either thin or thick samples of layered indirect-gap InSe semiconductor under dye laser excitation has been investigated either above or below the critical Mott density. The observed spectra consist of five bands in the near infrared region; four of them are localized in the energy range between the direct and the indirect gap and one only lies below the indirect energy gap. These bands can be associated with cooperative indirect and direct excitonic transitions and with electronhole plasma recombinations.     

Impact-ionized electron-hole plasma instability in GaAs

The possibility of the excitation of impact-ionized electron-hole plasma oscillatory instability in GaAs with frequency up to 10¹² Hz is shown. The linear and nonlinear stages of the instability are investigated.     

Structure and low temperature properties of SrB6

A detailed study of the room temperature structure of high quality single crystalline SrB6 has been made. Minute changes in interatomic distances may drastically affect the electronic spectrum of this compound. Electronic transport properties both at zero and non-zero frequencies above ⁴He temperatures indicate that SrBP₆ is close to be a semiconductor. However, at very low temperatures this compound enters a metallic state with a low concentration of itinerant charge carriers. Possible correlation effects are indicated by anomalous temperature dependences of the electrical resistivity and the specific heat below 1 K.     

Experimental investigation of the electron-hole plasma expansion in CdS

Using a two beam method for gain and reflection spectroscopy, we introduce a new technique allowing for a spatial and temporal resolution of 5 μm and 2 nsec, respectively. With this method we are able to investigate the optical gain, the reflection and the spatial extension of an electron-hole plasma under stationary excitation conditions. The experiments are performed with the II–VI compound semiconductor CdS. Our results are compared with those from other authors who deduced the electron-hole plasma properties mainly from luminescence experiments.     

Luminescence from compressed electron-hole plasma in germanium

We have studied the luminescence spectra from compressed electron-hole plasma in pure germanium. The spectra show a satisfactory thermalization of the charge carriers and lead to a reasonable value of the compressibility. These features encourage to further experimental efforts in the studies of the Mott transition in highly excited semiconductors.     

Excitons and electron-hole plasma in quasi-two-dimensional systems

A theoretical study of many-body effects in quasi-two-dimensional electron-hole systems is presented. The renormalized single-particle energies and the exciton binding energy are calculated as functions of the carrier density and temperature. A simple model for the nonlinear excitonic absorption and refraction is proposed.     

Stochastic resonance in a nonequilibrium electron-hole plasma

A photogenerated electron-hole plasma, heated in the process of Auger recombination, is studied. It is shown that in the plasma near the threshold for the appearance of uniform relaxational self-excited oscillations, weak noise transforms into a stochastic sequence of large-amplitude spikes. An additional optical periodic signal with amplitude approximately five times smaller than the noise variance, depending on the form of this signal, transforms these stochastic oscillations into low-amplitude quasiharmonic oscillations or into periodic spike self-excited oscillations of enormous amplitude. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 70, No. 7, 422–427 (10 October 1999)     

Cooling of high density electron-hole plasma

We generalize for high density electron-hole plasma, the previous theories [12] of temperature cooling of non-equilibrium hot plasma. Especially we take into account the cooling by emission of mixed longitudinal optical phonon and plasmon modes, these quasiparticles described by a non-equilibrium distribution function. We show that a strong slowing of the plasma cooling occurs, at high electron-hole density. We calculate for CdSe the temperature kinetics of plasma created by Yag laser (pulse duration 30 ps).     

Luminescence of direct-and indirect-gap electron-hole plasma in TlBr

Luminescence of TlBr crystals highly excited by a nanosecond pulsed-dye laser (3.4 eV) at the bath temperature ∼ 8.5 K was studied. Two emission lines labeled A (∼ 2.98 eV) and B (∼ 2.62 eV) were found, which show typical behavior of the electron-hole plasma recombination radiation. The A-line is assigned to the recombination of e-h pairs in the direct gap (X⁺₆−X^-₃) and the B-line to the simultaneous recombination in the indirect gap (X⁺₆−R^-₆). Condensation of carriers into an electron-hole liquid was not observed.     

Nonequilibrium properties of electron-hole plasma in direct-gap semiconductors

The gain spectra of the electron-hole plasma recombination in CdS are investigated as a function of the excitation conditions and of the lattice temperature. From a lineshape analysis which includes such many-body effects as collision broadening, single-particle energy renormalization and excitonic enhancement, average plasma parameters are obtained. In contrast to the predictions of quasi-equilibrium theory, one finds that the electron-hole plasma does not reach a full thermal quasi-equilibrium in direct-gap materials because of the short lifetimes of the carriers. The nonequilibrium effects are shown to lead to the formation of electron-hole plasma density fluctuations. No well-defined coexistence region exists. The experimental results in the phase transition region can consistently be explained by theoretical treatments of this nonequilibrium phase transition.     

Energy relaxation of an electron-hole plasma in semiconductors

We calculate the energy relaxation of an electron-hole plasma created by a short laser pulse in semiconductors like Si and GaAs in two cases: (i) when the carrier-carrier collision time is much shorter than the carrier-phonon one, so that a carrier temperature T_c exists. We give the variation of T_c with time; (ii) when there is no carrier temperature and the initial energy distribution is a peaked function of width Δ. We give the time evolution of the system when Δ is much larger and much smaller than the phonon energy.     

Current injected electron-hole plasma in GaP pin-device structures

We report first on an electrically generated electron-hole plasma (EHP) in GaP light emitting diodes having a pin-structure. For current densities above j ? 10³Acm^?2 and at T = 77 K a dense EHP is formed within the i-region whose carrier density can easily be changed by the injection level. The corresponding electron-hole pair densities n of the plasma and the resulting gap shrinkage ΔE_g have been determined using a least-squares fit of the EHP luminescence spectra. The lineshape analysis of the spectra yields a $\text{n}{}^{\mathrm{<mtext>1</mtext><mtext>4</mtext>}}$ -dependence of the gap shrinkage in quantitative agreement with findings from optically excited EHP and corresponding theoretical work. From electrical investigations it can be concluded that the EHP causes a strong nonlinear behaviour of the current-voltage characteristics.     

Self-focusing of electromagnetic waves in a degenerate electron-hole plasma

The free carrier nonlinear dielectric constant of a degenerate electron-hole plasma (e.g., Ge) in the presence of a Gaussian electromagnetic beam has been studied by a kinetic treatment. The redistribution of carriers (electrons and holes) is the source of nonlinearity and is effective in causing the self-focusing of the beam. The rise in carrier temperature due to the wave field is almost unaffected by the degeneracy, whereas the nonlinearity is considerably affected by it. The increase of degeneracy (by increasing the equilibrium carrier concentration at the fixed lattice temperature) increases the nonlinear dielectric constant. Hence self-focusing is enhanced by degeneracy. This work was supported by NSF (USA) and CSIR (India).     

Instability of photoexcited electron-hole plasma in short semiconductor structures

The instability of the electron-hole plasma produced by continuous photoexcitation in short semiconductor structures is investigated theoretically. The applied electric field is considerably disturbed by photogenerated charge carriers. At a sufficiently intensive photogeneration plasma instability occurs. The frequency of current oscillations due to the instability, as shown by numerical simulation for a GaAs structure, is in the range of 10¹¹–10¹²s^–1.