Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Advances in the optical analysis of semiconductor materials

  • Invited Paper
  • Published:
Applied physics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Recent progress is reviewed for optical techniques of semiconductor materials characterization. Luminescence is emphasized because of its inherently high sensitivity to detect impurities and imperfections, especially in the presently best understood compounds GaAs and GaP. Examples are discussed for optical determination of mechanical stresses, the effect of dislocations, dopant inhomogeneities and compensation ratio, carrier relaxation and electron drift mobilities, as well as energy transfer processes.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. A general survey was presented in “Electronic Materials”, ed. by N. B. Hannay and U. Colombo (Plenum, New York 1973)

    Google Scholar 

  2. For a review of alternate analytic methods, see “Modern Physical Techniques in Materials Technology”, ed. by T. Mulvey and R. K. Webster (Oxford University Press, 1974) and the collection of articles in Rey. Phys.11, 1 (1976)

  3. J. I. Pankove:Optical Processes in Semiconductors (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs N.J., 1971)

    Google Scholar 

  4. J. C. Phillips:Bonds and Bands in Semiconductors (Academic Press, New York 1973)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Raman scattering related to impurities was first proposed by R. J. Elliot and R. Loudon: Phys. Lett.3, 189 (1963). Experiments on GaP by C. H. Henry, J. J. Hopfield, L. C. Luther: Phys. Rev. Lett.17, 1178 (1966). A recent reference is J. Doehler: Phys. Rev. B12, 2917 (1975)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. A general review of optical emission in semiconductors is: H. J. Queisser, U. Heim: Ann. Rev. Mater. Sci.4, 125 (1974)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Most recent progress in luminescence, with special emphasis also on semiconductors: Proc. Internat. Conf. on Luminescence, J. Lumin.12/13, (1976)

  8. A. A. Bergh, P. J. Dean: Proc. IEEE60, 156 (1972)

    Google Scholar 

  9. R. H. Bube:Photoconductivity of Solids (Wiley, New York 1967)

    Google Scholar 

  10. G. E. Stillmann, C. M. Wolfe, J. O. Dimmock: “Far-Infrared Photoconductivity in High-Purity GaAs”, forthcoming in “Semicond. and Semimet.”, [11]

  11. The compound semiconductors are thoroughly documented in the series “Semiconductors and Semimetals, ed. by R. K. Wilhardson and A. C. Beer (Academic Press, New York) 10 volumes up to 1975. Also, see the proceedings of the International Symposia on “Gallium Arsenide and Related Compounds”

  12. A. M. White, P. J. Dean, D. J. Ashen, J. B. Mullin, M. Webb, B. Day, P. D. Greene: J. Phys. C6, L243 (1973); D. J. Ashen, P. J. Dean, P. D. Greene, D. T. J. Hurle, J. B. Mullin, A. M. White: J. Phys. Chem. Solids36, 1041 (1975)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  13. A recent reference on optical effects attributed to vacancies in GaAs is D. Bois, P. Pinard: Phys. Rev. B9, 4171 (1974); earlier work quoted therein

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  14. “Lattice Defects in Semiconductors 1974”, Inst. of Physics Conference Series no. 23, London and Bristol (1975)

  15. The binding of excitons to impurities and defects was reviewed by U. Schröder: InFestkörperprobleme/Adv. in Solid State Phys. Vol. XIII, ed. by H.J. Qucisser (Pergamon/Vieweg, Braunschweig 1973), p. 171

    Google Scholar 

  16. Martin Schmidt, T.N. Morgan, W. Schairer: Phys. Rev. B11, 5002 (1975)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  17. D. Bimberg: “Radiative Recombination of Bound Excitons in Semiconductors withT d -Symmetry in Magnetic Fields” Proc. Int. Conf. Appl. of High Magn. Fields in Semiconductor Physics, ed. by G. Landwehr, Würzburg (1974) p. 339

  18. K. Cho, W. Dreybrodt, P. Hiesinger, S. Suga, F. Willmann: InProc. Int. Conf. Phys. Semicond., ed. by M.H. Pilkuhn (Teubner, Stuttgart 1974) p. 945

    Google Scholar 

  19. K.Cho: Phys. Rev. to be submitted

  20. A.G. Milnes:Deep Impurities in Semiconductors (Wiley, New York 1973)

    Google Scholar 

  21. H.J. Queisser: InFestkörperprobleme/Adv. in Solid State Phys., Vol. XI, ed. by O. Madelung (Pergamon/Vieweg, Braunschweig 1971), p. 45

    Google Scholar 

  22. H.J. Stocker, Martin Schmidt: J. Appl. Phys.47, 28 (1976)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. A. review of time-resolved spectroscopy was given by U. Heim: InFestkörperprobleme/Adv. in Solid State Phys., Vol. XII, ed. by O. Madelung (Pergamon/Vieweg, Braunschweig 1972) p. 183

    Google Scholar 

  24. Martin Schmidt, L. Schmidt: Appl. Phys.8, 47 (1975)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  25. H. Alexander, P. Haasen: InSolid State Physics, ed by H. Ehrenreich, F. Seitz, D. Turnbull (Academic Press, New York 1968) Vol. 22, p. 27

    Google Scholar 

  26. J. Hornstra: J. Phys. Chem. Solids5, 129 (1958)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. P. Petroff, R.L. Hartman: Appl. Phys. Letters23, 469 (1973)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. W. Heinke, H.J. Queisser, Phys. Rev. Letters33, 1082 (1974)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  29. H.J. Queisser, C.S. Fuller: J. Appl. Phys.37, 4895 (1966)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  30. H.C. Casey: J. Electrochem. Soc.114, 153 (1967)

    Google Scholar 

  31. U. Heim, P. Hiesinger: Phys. Stat. Sol. (b)66, 461 (1974)

    Google Scholar 

  32. A. Onton: InFestkörperprobleme/Adv. in Solid State Phys., Vol. XIII, ed. by H.J. Queisser (Pergamon/Vieweg, Braunschweig 1973), p. 59

    Google Scholar 

  33. M.B. Panish, I. Hayashi: InApplied Solid State Science, Vol. 4, ed. by R. Wolfe (Academic Press, New York 1974)

    Google Scholar 

  34. D.D. Sell, S.E. Stokowski, R. Dingle, J.V. DiLorenzo: Phys. Rev. B7, 4568 (1973)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  35. Example for dislocated GaAs: F.A. Gimel'farb, A. V. Govorkov, S. P. Grishina, M. G. Mil'vidskii, V. I. Fistul', S. S. Shifric: Kristallografia19, 1115 (1974) [Sov. Phys. Crystallogr.19, 692 (1975)]; for GaP: T. Suzuki, Y. Matsumoto: Appl. Phys. Letters26, 431 (1975)

    Google Scholar 

  36. For a most recent paper concerning surface terraces, see N. Toyoda, M. Mihara, T. Hara: Appl. Phys. Letters27, 627 (1975) and references therein

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  37. E. Bauser, B. Fischer, W. Heinke: to be published

  38. R. Dingle: InFestkörperprobleme/Adv. in Solid State Phys., Vol. XV, ed. by H.J. Queisser, (Pergamon/Vieweg, Braunschweig 1975) p. 21

    Google Scholar 

  39. D.L. Rode, S. Knight: Phys. Rev. B3, 2534 (1971)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  40. T.Kamiya, E.Wagner: Proc. ESSDERC, Grenoble (1975) and to be published

  41. E. Wagner, W. Bludau: Solid State Commun.17, 709 (1975)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  42. W. Bludau, E. Wagner, H.J. Queisser: Solid State Commun.18, 861 (1976)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  43. D.G. Thomas, M. Gershenzon, F.A. Trumbore: Phys. Rev.133, A269 (1964)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  44. P.J. Dean: InProc. Int. Symp. Phys. Technol. Semicond. Light Emitters and Detectors, Pugnochiuso (1972), ed. by A. Frova (North-Holland, Amsterdam 1973) p. 51

    Google Scholar 

  45. J.J. Hopfield, H. Kukimoto, P.J. Dean: Phys. Rev. Letters27, 139 (1971)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  46. T. N. Morgan, M. R. Lorenz, A. Onton: Phys. Rev. Letters28, 906 (1972)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  47. R. A. Street, P. J. Wiesner: Phys. Rev. Letters34, 1569 (1975)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  48. P. J. Wiesner, R. A. Street, H. D. Wolf: Phys. Rev. Letters35, 1366 (1975)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  49. Application of the principle of detailed balance to carrier lifetimes: W. van Roosbroeck, W. Shockley: Phys. Rev.94, 1558 (1954)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  50. D. F. Nelson, J. D. Cuthbert, P. J. Dean, D. G. Thomas: Phys. Rev. Lett.17, 1262 (1966) used detailed balance to identify nonradiative Auger recombination in GaP

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  51. P. Wiesner, U. Heim: Phys. Rev. B11, 3071 (1975)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  52. Reviewed by G. Lampel: InProc. Int. Conf. Phys. Semicond, ed. by M.H. Pilkuhn (Teubner Stuttgart 1974), p. 743

    Google Scholar 

  53. C. Weisbuch, C. Hermann, G. Fishman: inProc. Int. Conf. Phys. Semicond, ed. by M.H. Pilkuhn (Teubner Stuttgart 1974) p. 761

    Google Scholar 

  54. H. Y. Fan: Prov. Int. Conf. Phys. Semic., Moscow, Nauka, Leningrad (1968) p. 135

    Google Scholar 

  55. R. Ulbrich: Phys. Rev. Letters27 1512 (1971)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  56. W. Bludau, E. Wagner, manuscript in preparation and Proc. Int. Conf. Luminescence, Tokyo (1975), J. Luminescence12/13, 541 (1976)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  57. A recent paper of the extensive work of the Clarendon Laboratory group is: P.E. Simmonds, J. M. Chamberlain, R. A. Hoult, R.A. Stradling, C.C. Bradley: J. Phys. C.7, 4164 (1974)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  58. H.G. Grimmeiss, L.Å. Lebedo, C. Ovren, T.N. Morgan: InProc. Int. Conf. Phys. Semicond ed. by M.H. Pilkuhn (Teubner, Stuttgart 1974) p. 386

    Google Scholar 

  59. D.V. Lang: J. Appl. Phys.45, 3014 (1974)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  60. J. Lagowski, I. Baltov, H. C. Gatos: Surface Sci.40, 216 (1973)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  61. D.V. Lang, C.H. Henry: Phys. Rev. Letters35, 1525 (1975)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  62. For recent activities concerning the electron-hole liquid, see [7] and the Proc. Internat. Conferences on the Physics of Semiconductors (1972, 1974, 1976)

  63. R. Sauer, J. Weber: Phys. Rev. Letters36, 48 (1976)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  64. M.S. Skolnick, L. Eaves, P. Stradling, J.C. Portal, S. Askenazy: Solid State Commun.15, 1403 (1974)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  65. The present state of ultrapure Ge was described by R.N. Hall In:Proc. Int. Conf. Phys. Semicond, ed. by M.H. Pilkuhn (Teubner Stuttgart 1974), p. 363. Advances in Si were summarized by H. Herrmann, H. Herzer, E. Sirtl: InFestkörperprobleme/Adv. in Sol. State Phys., Vol. XV, ed. by H.J. Queisser (Pergamon/Vieweg, Braunschweig 1975) p. 279

    Google Scholar 

  66. M.G. Collet: Sol. State Electron.18, 1077 (1975)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  67. J. Schneider (private communication) has recently investigated deep traps in GaAs with photosensitive ESR and also found ESR-evidence for antisite lattice defects in GaP and other semiconductors

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Max-Planck-Institut für Festkörperforschung, D-7000, Stuttgart, Fed. Rep. Germany

    H. J. Queisser

Authors
  1. H. J. Queisser
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Queisser, H.J. Advances in the optical analysis of semiconductor materials. Appl. Phys. 10, 275–288 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00920611

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00920611

PACS Code

Search

Navigation