Features of Recombination Radiation of GaAs Type Semiconductors with the Participation of Fine Acceptor Levels in a Magnetic Field ()
1. Introduction
The study of the polarization of recombination radiation of semiconductors in a magnetic field is of great theoretical [1]-[5] experimental [6]-[10] interest in order to obtain subtle information about their optical properties and the dynamics of crystal structures in the field of photonics and spintronics. In the pioneering work [2], a theoretical analysis was made of the case of a weak magnetic field (
) in semiconductors of the GaAs-type, when recombination radiation occurs during the electronic transition “conduction band-shallow acceptor”. A simple expression is obtained for the degree of circular polarization of radiation
,(1)
where
, g factors of a free electron and a bound hole in the acceptor,
, Bohr magneton, k-Boltzmann constant, T-absolute temperature on the Kelvin scale, H, magnetic field strength. As can be seen from (1), the polarization of recombination radiation with the participation of small acceptors is determined by the average moments of free electrons and bound holes, depends linearly and isotropically on the magnetic field, and is also inversely proportional to temperature. These conclusions of the theory [2] received their experimental confirmation in the works [6]-[8].
The authors of [7], studying the polarization of the 0.709 eV spectral line of germanium radiation over a wide range of magnetic field values (from 0 to 50 kE), showed that the degree of circular polarization depends on the direction of the magnetic field. The theory of Zeeman splitting of shallow acceptors in cubic semiconductors, taking into account cubic contributions from the band structure and strong magnetic fields, was developed in [8].
The effect of magnetic field on the physical properties of hole states of the Mn acceptor located near the (110) surface of GaAs and it was shown that the highly anisotropic wave function of the hole does not change significantly under the influence of a magnetic field up to 6 T [9]. A study of magnetoresistance in the Ga0.972Mn0.028As epitaxial layer showed [10] that doping with Be leads to a reorientation of both the easy and hard magnetic axes in GaMnAs.
Recently, much attention has been paid to the study of the energy spectrum and wave functions of holes in the valence band of semiconductor nanostructures, such as quantum wells, quantum wires and quantum dots, in an external magnetic field [11]-[15]. Thus, a theoretical calculation of fine impurity states in semiconductor quantum wells and GaAs-(Ga, Al)As superlattices in a magnetic field along the growth direction was performed [11], which is consistent with experimental results. Circularly polarized photoluminescence of A(+) centers in GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells has been detected, induced by a magnetic field [12], which makes it possible to determine their fine, spin, and energy structure. The anisotropy of the electronic g-factor for GaAs/AlxGa1–xAs heterostructures at liquid helium temperature was studied, corrections to the g-factor components linear in the magnetic field were determined, and a strong anisotropy of their values was established [13]. Suris and Semina [14] studied the dependence of the Zeeman splitting of the ground state of a hole on changes in size quantization parameters, taking into account the complex structure of the valence band and the magnetic field-induced mixing of hole states. It is shown that the hole g-factor is extremely sensitive to the composition of hole states and the geometry of the size quantization potential. Semina, Rodina et al. [15] theoretically studied the cubic anisotropy of Zeeman hole splitting in a semiconductor nanocrystal arising from crystallographic cubic-symmetric spin and kinetic energy terms in the bulk Luttinger Hamiltonian. The authors proposed possible experimental manifestations and potential methods for measuring cubic anisotropy of hole Zeeman splitting.
The purpose of this work is to obtain general expressions using the Picus and Beer invariants method for the total intensity and degree of circular polarization of photoluminescence at small acceptor centers of GaAs-type semiconductors in an arbitrary crystallographic orientation and magnetic field value. We believe that during the lifetime τ free electrons have time to reach an equilibrium spin distribution, i.e.
, where
is the spin relaxation time.
Let us analyze the role of anisotropic Zeeman splitting of the acceptor level and the features of magnetically induced mixing of sublevels at critical values
of the ratio of bound hole g-factor parameters in the formation of the intensity and magnetic circular polarization of photoluminescence at shallow acceptors.
2. Research Method and Theoretical Calculation
Let us consider, as in our previous work [16], a GaAs-type semiconductor placed in a uniform magnetic field, in which nonequilibrium carriers are created, and their radiative recombination occurs through levels of shallow acceptors. We assume that the directions of radiation and magnetic field coincide (Faraday geometry). Then, due to the orientation of the spins of electrons in the conduction band and holes in the acceptor levels under the influence of a magnetic field, the luminescence of the crystal turns out to be circularly polarized. For a theoretical description of such recombination radiation, we first note that the initial states of electrons and holes, taking into account the spin, are two- and four-fold degenerate and in the Luttinger-Kohn representations are described by wave functions that transform according to the representations
, and the Hamiltonians of the interaction of free electrons and bound holes with the magnetic field strength
in a first approximation are described by matrices [1]
,(2a)
.(2b)
Here,
, Pauli matrices,
, matrices of 4 × 4 dimensions of projections of the angular momentum operator in the basis of states
,
are the Zeeman splitting constants of the acceptor level, which determine the
factor of the hole.
We consider perturbations (2a) and (2b) to be small quantities of the first order with respect to the intracrystalline interaction (
), which removes the spin degeneracy of the state of the conduction band electron and the hole in the acceptor. The correct wave functions of these states in the zeroth approximation are determined accordingly by the following relations:
, (3a)
.(3b)
Expansion coefficients
for complete sets of orthonormal the functions
,
and the values of the split energy levels
can be determined from the following matrix equations
,(4a)
, (4b)
where
and
are 2 × 2 and 4 × 4 identity matrices, and are matrices columns 2 × 1 and 4 × 1. The first of them will allow us to find the Zeeman splitting energies in the conduction band
, (5a)
and the second gives for the acceptor levels
expression
, (5b)
,
where
(see Figure 1).
Figure 1. Choice of directions of crystallographic axes
,
,
and unit vectors of magnetic field strength
, radiation polarization
.
Generally speaking, the Zeman splitting for the acceptor, as can be seen from (5b), has a complex anisotropic character, the analysis of which was devoted to the work [16]. At
and
, the magnitude of the splitting of the acceptor level
does not depend on the direction of the vector
in the crystal. Next, we are interested in deriving general formulas for calculating the parameters of polarized luminescence. The intensity of recombination radiation associated with the conduction-acceptor quantum transition and polarized in the right or left circle in the direction of the magnetic field can be determined from the following general expression
, (6)
where
is the polarization vector (
, see Figure 1),
is the quasi-momentum operator,
;
-energy distribution functions for conduction band electrons and holes in acceptors. We will assume that it has place Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution of electron and hole over spin levels
(7)
In (6)
denotes a 4 × 4 matrix
.(8)
Here are the matrices
and
, where
and
are the expansion coefficients of the wave function of a hole in state n and an electron in state m, respectively, in terms of the basis functions of the representations
and
(see (3a) and (3b));
, matrix element of electron and hole recombination in state i = 1, 2 and j = 1, 2, 3, 4, independent of
, i.e.
-matrix of order 4 × 2 determines the selection rule for recombination radiation “conduction band-acceptor” in the absence of a magnetic field:
j = 1/2; m j = 3/2; n |
1/2 |
−1/2 |
3/2 |
|
0 |
1/2 |
|
|
−1/2 |
|
|
−3/2 |
0 |
|
, (9)
where .
It can be shown [17] that, for example,
, (10)
where
is the energy of a hole in three other states different from state n,
-δ Dirac symbol.
Substituting (9) and (10) into (8), and then (7) and (8) into (6) after simple but cumbersome transformations, we obtain for radiation along the vector
, (11)
(12)
where
(13)
The following notations are introduced here:
,
, projections of the unit vector
onto the main symmetry axes of the crystal.
3. Discussion of the Results Obtained
3.1. Analysis of General Formulas
As can be seen from (11)-(13), the intensity I and the degree of polarization Pcirc. have a complex angular dependence due to both the anisotropy of the Zeeman splitting of the acceptor level (5b) through the quantities (
) and the anisotropy of the selection rules (9) through the quantities γ and χ. It is interesting to note that at
the angular dependence in formulas (5b) and (11)-(13) completely disappears, i.e. under the conditions assumed above, Zeeman splitting of a shallow acceptor and the associated luminescence of GaAs-type semiconductors do not exhibit anisotropy. In this case, the expressions for I and Pcirc. greatly simplified:
(14)
(15)
In the absence of a magnetic field, the value
and from (14), (15), as expected, we obtain
,
.
General expressions (11)-(13) are also significantly simplified for certain characteristic values of
. So, for example, at
there is no anisotropy for split levels
, and they are pairwise merge, forming two doublet states
(see (5b)), whereas for I and Pcirc. It is saved in the following simplified form:
(16)
(17)
In the general case, the
dependences of I and Pcirc. On the constants
(or on
) and on the direction of the magnetic field behave in a very complex manner.
It is of interest to analyze the general expressions for intensity (11) and circular polarization (12) in the limiting cases of weak and strong magnetic fields.
1) For a weak magnetic field (
) from (11) and (12) we find
(18)
(19)
Here we immediately note that for the degree of circular polarization induced by a weak magnetic field from (19) in the limiting case
we obtain the result of Dyakonov and Perel (1), and the g-factor of the hole in the acceptor coincides with the constant
. In formula (19), the third term
in brackets takes into account the more subtle paramagnetic interaction of the acceptor with the external magnetic field (see (2b)) and describes the additional hole contribution to the polarization. It can be seen that the Zeeman splitting constant
will make a noticeable contribution to the polarization even at such modest values as
(for crystals with a diamond structure the following experimental values are known:
,
,
[4] [7]) and it is necessary to take it into account for accurate interpretation of the corresponding results of studies of recombination radiation through small acceptors.
In the case under consideration, although formally there is an angular dependence for the Zeeman levels
(5b) and intensity (18), it does not manifest itself in the polarization of the radiation (19). This is explained by the fact that, under the condition
, the interval between the Zeeman sublevels of the acceptor is covered by the thermal spread of phonons (
), and as a result, the induced orientations of the hole spins in the acceptor, on average, are practically independent of the direction of the magnetic field. Therefore, it is natural to expect that the polarization of recombination radiation in this case is not sensitive to the merging of the magnetic sublevels of the acceptor.
Under the
condition, as can be seen from (18), the total radiation intensity is practically independent of the magnetic field and
.
2) The condition of a strong magnetic field
is practically easy to satisfy at low temperatures with moderate values of the strength H. Thus, for the temperature of liquid helium we obtain
. On the other hand, the theory developed here is valid when the condition
, is satisfied where
is the activation energy of the ground state of the acceptor, and at
we have
, which gives us grounds to consider magnetic fields with
strong already at the temperature of the liquid nitrogen.
In a strong magnetic field, the population of particles on split sublevels varies greatly, which leads to a significant difference in the intensities of spectral lines associated with quantum transitions between different magnetic levels of the conduction band and acceptor. Thus, the probability of an allowed transition between the lower electron and upper hole levels is much greater than the others. Therefore, considering that the luminescence under consideration occurs only due to the transition of electrons from the lower magnetic sublevel of the conduction band (m = −1/2) to the upper acceptor sublevel (n = −3/2) c
, from (11)-(13) we obtain
(20)
(21)
(22)
where the upper sign (+) refers to the case
, and the lower sign (−), to
,
and
are the Zeeman splitting energies of the two upper acceptor levels (of which
is higher than
). Since according to (5b)
, then, as can be seen from (21) and (22), at
the degree of induced circular polarization does not depend on the value of the magnetic field strength, while at the same time such a dependence for the total intensity is preserved due to the exponential multiplier
. At the same time, I and Pcirc exhibit complex anisotropy and dependence on
with all the above-mentioned features at the beginning of point A.
3.2. Results of Numerical Calculation
Subsequently, under a “strong” magnetic field, we performed a numerical calculation of
,
at
, the results of which are presented in Figures 2-4. For these functions, regardless of the sign of the
factor, you can specify 3 characteristic ranges of
values:
;
and
, in which they exhibit specific characteristics.
Thus, when
at
(region I) in arbitrary directions of the crystal, the most probable quantum transition is
and it is expanded according to the selection rule. In this region, the total radiation intensity has practically no anisotropy and is circularly polarized in the right circle (curves 1-3 in Figure 2(a), Figure 2(b)). And at
(region II), the most probable transition is prohibited and it can be assumed that in GaAs-type crystals with such values of
in an arbitrary direction of the magnetic field, practically no recombination radiation occurs through small acceptors. In the transition region III
, significant angular dependences of I and Pcirc luminescence in a magnetic field are revealed, due to the anisotropy of the Zeeman splitting of the acceptor level and the direct anisotropy of the wave functions of the energy bands of the crystal.
![]()
Figure 2. Dependence of the intensity (a) and degree of circular polarization (b) of radiation on
in the region of critical values −4/7, −2/5 and −4/13 for directions
// [001] (curves1, 1’), [110] (2, 2’) and [111] (3, 3’) at
(1-3) and
(1’-3’).
In the case of
(
), as can be seen from curves 1’-3’ Figure 2, recombination through small acceptors in crystals of the GaAs type behaves completely oppositely in regions I and II of the
values, compared to the case of
(
). Thus, in region I there is no radiation in the sense indicated above, and in region II there is radiation circularly polarized along the left circle. And the significant difference in the transition region in the cases where
and
is that in the first of the latter, in the directions
and
, radiation is observed only at
and
, respectively, and in the second, at
and
. These results, in principle, can be easily explained by fixing the position and course of the magnetic sublevels of free electrons and the shallow acceptor depending on
,
and
.
![]()
Figure 3. Angular dependence of radiation intensity for values
: −4/13, −2/5, −0.7, −1.0 at
(a) and
: 0.1, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0 at
(b). Vector
lies in the (110) plane,
is the angle between
and the [001] axis. The value of
is fixed.
Figure 4. Angular dependence of the degree of circular polarization for values
: −4/13. −2/5, −0.7, −1.0, −2.0 at
(a) and
: −2/5, −4/13, −0.1, −0.5, −0.7 at
(b).
and
are chosen in the same way as in Figure 3.
Figure 2(a), Figure 2(b) show the qualitative dependences of I and
on
in the vicinity of the critical values −4/7, −2/5 and −4/13 for the directions
//[001], [110], [111] at
and
with features discovered during the numerical calculation. Note that the cases
and
(
) also differ in that for them the values of the matrix elements of the allowed transitions do not completely coincide. It should also be noted that for
the characters of the functions
and
do not differ qualitatively from the case of
, in particular, the graphs under study for
(
) and
(
) completely coincide.
Figure 3 and Figure 4 show the angular dependences of the total intensity and the degree of circular polarization of radiation in a “strong” magnetic field, calculated for some values of
at
(Figure 3(a) and Figure 4(a)) and
(Figure 3(b) and Figure 4(b)). The nature of the dependence
,
is determined by the sign of the ratio of the
factors
and
. It can be seen that at
,
or
,
the values of I and
depend significantly on the angle
, and the luminescence intensity decreases significantly. In the case when
,
, or
,
, in a strong magnetic field
, the radiation in the direction of the vector
is almost completely circularly polarized, regardless of the angle
(within 2%, see Figure 4), i.e., the anisotropy of Zeeman splitting in this case does not manifest itself in the polarization of luminescence.
4. Conclusions
Based on the results of this work, the following conclusions can be drawn:
1) Using the method of Picus and Beer invariants, general expressions were obtained for the total intensity and degree of circular polarization of photoluminescence at small acceptor centers of GaAs-type semiconductors in a longitudinal magnetic field.
2) In a weak magnetic field, formally there is an angular dependence for the Zeeman levels
of the acceptor and the total intensity, but it does not manifest itself in the polarization of the radiation. In this case
, the radiation intensity is practically independent of the magnetic field.
3) In a strong magnetic field
, the nature of the angular dependences
,
is determined by the sign of the ratio of the g-factors
and
. In the case when
,
, or
,
the radiation in the direction of the vector
is almost completely circularly polarized, regardless of the angle θ. At
,
or
,
, in a strong magnetic field, the luminescence intensity decreases significantly, and the values of I and
, significantly depend on the θ.
Thus, studying the dependence of the intensity and degree of polarization of luminescence in a magnetic field, caused by the optical transition of free electrons to the level of a shallow acceptor, on the orientation of the vector
in the crystal makes it possible, in principle, to find the values of the constants
and
, as well as to establish some characteristic features of the functions
,
.