Effect Of The Carbon Acceptor Concentration On The Photoquenching And Enhancement Of The Piezoelectric Photoacoustic Signals Of Semi-Insulating Gaas

Abstract

AbstractThe spectral and the time dependent piezoelectric photoacoustic (PPA) measurements under the continuous light illumination were carried out at 85 K to investigate nonradiative recombination processes involving EL2 defect levels in carbon doped semi-insulating (SI) GaAs. The decrease of the PPA signal due to the photoquenching effect of EL2 was observed for a short period of illumination of 1.12 eV. It was found that the photoquenching becomes drastic with increasing the carbon concentration. After fully photoquenching, the PPA signal increased again through a local minimum by the continuous light illumination and finally exceeded the initial value before illumination until the saturation level was reached. The deep donor level EL6 and its metastable state are proposed. EL6 level donates electrons to compensate a part of carbon acceptors after photoquenching. The nonradiative recombination through this level generates the PPA signal. The usefulness of the PPA technique for studying the nonradiative transition through deep levels in semiconductor is suggested.