Properties of the strain-confined electron-hole liquid in Ge

A large volume of electron-hole liquid is formed by optically exciting a suitably stressed crystal of Ge. A contact stress produces a max. shear inside the crystal which acts as an attractive potential well for photoexcited carriers. Properties of the electron-hole liquid confined to this strain wel...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review. B, Condensed matter Condensed matter, 1978-08, Vol.18 (3), p.1479-1503
Main Authors: Wolfe, J. P., Markiewicz, R. S., Kelso, S. M., Furneaux, J. E., Jeffries, C. D.
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:A large volume of electron-hole liquid is formed by optically exciting a suitably stressed crystal of Ge. A contact stress produces a max. shear inside the crystal which acts as an attractive potential well for photoexcited carriers. Properties of the electron-hole liquid confined to this strain well are determined from spectral and spatial measurements of the recombination luminescence under wide variations in stress, temp. and excitation level. electron-hole liquid and free-exciton phases are observed near 4 deg K, confirming the interpretation of a first-order liquid--gas phase transition and giving the exciton condensation energy phi approx = 1 meV. The liquid pair density at intermediate < 111 > stress is determined to be (0.50 plus/minus 0.05) x 10 exp 17 cm exp --3 from a luminescence line-shaped analysis which takes into account the reduced electron band degeneracy and the strain-dependent hole mass.98 refs.--AA
ISSN:0163-1829
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevB.18.1479