Theory of acceptor-ground-state description and hot photoluminescence in cubic semiconductors

Abstract

An approach to the theory of the acceptor ground state in cubic semiconductors is presented. The model has been developed within the framework of the four-band effective Luttinger Hamiltonian and is applicable for both Coulomb and non-Coulomb accepters. The system of integral equations for the ground-state wave functions has been derived and its solution has been numerically computed. We present the general form of the acceptor-ground-state wave function. The wave functions for a set of acceptor dopants in GaAs are calculated with an accuracy of 2%. The obtained wave functions have been used for qualitative and quantitative analysis of the hot photoluminescence (HPL) spectra and linear polarization in GaAs crystals. Analytical expressions for the line shape and anisotropy of the linear polarization degree have been derived. The dependencies of the HPL characteristics on the excitation energy as well as on the acceptor binding energy have been analyzed. The HPL theory presented allows us to describe the wide spectrum of available experimental data.