Drag of carriers by photons in narrow-gap semiconductors

The current representing the drag of carriers by photons is calculated for cubic narrow-gap semiconductors allowing for the nonparabolicity and nonsphericity of the valence subbands. A quantitative Kane model is used to obtain a general tensor expression for the photocurrent related to the coefficients representing the nonparabolicity of the light-hole subband and the nonsphericity of the heavy-hole subband. The results are given of a numerical calculation of the principal parameters of the drag current in the form of components of the elementary tensors (as a function of temperature) and of the coefficient representing the nonparabolicity (as a function of the wavelength of the incident light) in the case of narrow-gap Hg_1–xCd_xTe solid solutions.Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 5, pp. 62–66, May, 1980.