This review provides numerical and graphical information about many (but by no means all) of the physical and electronic properties of GaAs that are useful to those engaged in experimental research and development on this material. The emphasis is on properties of GaAs itself, and the host of effects associated with the presence of specific impurities and defects is excluded from coverage. The geometry of the sphalerite lattice and of the first Brillouin zone of reciprocal space are used to pave the way for material concerning elastic moduli, speeds of sound, and phonon dispersion curves. A section on thermal properties includes material on the phase diagram and liquidus curve, thermal expansion coefficient as a function of temperature, specific heat and equivalent Debye temperature behavior, and thermal conduction. The discussion of optical properties focusses on dispersion of the dielectric constant from low frequencies [κ0(300)=12.85] through the reststrahlen range to the intrinsic edge, and on the ass...

Semiconducting and other major properties of gallium arsenide

A comparative survey of known experimental and theoretical values of heavy-hole and electron effective mass in GaAs, InAs, and A1As is presented in this work. Recommended room-temperature values of these parameters are given for the above binary solutions and for their ternary compounds.

Effective masses of electrons and heavy holes in GaAs, InAs, A1As and their ternary compounds

The advantages of Fourier analysis of quantum magnetoresistance peaks are demonstrated in the first application of these techniques to a study of the magnetophonon effect in a number of semiconductors and also to the subnikov-de Haas effect in MOS devices. The change in amplitude of these series is investigated as a function of applied electric field. The phonons involved are identified and are all shown to be intervalley with the exception of the highest energy phonon. In contrast Fourier analysis of the magnetophonon spectrum for n-Ge shows that intervalley scattering in this material is weaker by at least a factor of 20 than intravalley scattering by high energy phonons. With both n-Ge and n-GaAs considerable sharpening of the magnetophonon peaks is detected and a strong second harmonic of the fundamental magnetophonon frequency is observed in each case on the Fourier analysis. With n-GaAs as the temperature dependence of the amplitude and damping of the magnetophonon series is compared with the theory developed by Barker (1972).

Fourier analysis of magnetophonon and two-dimensional Shubnikov-de Haas magnetoresistance structure

A critical review is given of recent experimental and quantum transport theoretical studies of hot electrons in quantizing magnetic fields. Particular attention is paid to new effective temperature models and to numerical solutions to exact quantum kinetic equations. The latter are discussed within a unified framework based on resolvent analyses of the Liouville equation. Special emphasis is given to carrier-carrier scattering, non-parabolicity, resonance phenomena and non-heating non-linear departures from Ohm's law. The optical determination of quantum distributions and the application of Fourier transform and harmonic detection techniques to hot carrier magneto-resonance spectroscopy is discussed with emphasis on magnetophonon and magnetic-impurity phenomena.

Hot electron quantum magneto-transport

Low temperature magnetoresistance measurements on weakly doped tellurium samples ( p 15 cm −3 ) show a large number of structures which appear only under nonohmic conditions. Depending on the electric field strength and the chemical nature of the impurities, different types of structures in the magnetoresistance are visible. The most remarkable effect is the appearance of sharp maxima in the magnetoresistance (halfwidth ΔB ∼ 0.07 T) which show up at relatively low electric fields of about 1 V/cm. The magnetic field positions of these peaks are correlated with the chemical nature of the impurities. The resonance appears for the different impurities at B = 3.40 T (Bi), B = 3.61 T (Sb), and B = 3.77 T (As)( B ⊥ c ). Further structures in the magnetoresistance under hot carrier conditions are correlated with a resonance between the lowest impurity excitation energy and the cyclotron resonance energy. From hot magnetophonon measurements, impurities with quite different binding energies could be identified.

Impurity spectroscopy on tellurium by means of magnetoresistance measurements under nonohmic conditions

The magnetophonon effect has been observed in the longitudinal and transverse magnetoresistance and the Hall voltage of n-InP under warm-electron conditions. Two distinct processes of electron energy relaxation are identified from the resonant structure: the first involves emission of a Gamma point LO phonon accompanied by the capture of the warm electron at an impurity site; the second corresponds to inter-Landau-level transitions by emission of a pair of TA phonons near the X point of the Brillouin zone. Three other extrema in the magnetoresistance are tentatively ascribed to resonant impact ionization of neutral donors.

An investigation of the energy relaxation of warm electrons in indium phosphide by means of the magnetophonon effect

The exact form of the valence bands in III-V compounds has long been controversial and it is demonstrated that quantitative information concerning the valence band structure can be obtained from the magnetophonon effect. The valence band anisotropy deduced for InSb from the low-field peaks is comparable with that of Ge. For GaAs the heavy hole peaks were interspersed with light hole peaks and were insufficiently numerous to determine the exact valence band anisotropy. The high field peaks of Ge showed a peak splitting and a reduction in anisotropy attributable to the unequal spacing of Landau levels close to the valence band edge which is caused by an admixture of light and heavy hole states. The high-field peaks of InSb showed a similar reduction in anisotropy but no peak splitting. The light hole series in both InSb and GaAs showed an additional peak arising from the admixture of light and heavy hole bands.

http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0022-3719/10/15/018/pdf

R Barbaste

Papers

An investigation of the energy relaxation of warm electrons in indium phosphide by means of the magnetophonon effect

An investigation of the valence bands of germanium, InSb and GaAs by means of the magnetophonon effect