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Nucleation phenomena in electron-hole drop condensation in ultra-pure Ge

  • Electron-Hole Drops
  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Physics of Highly Excited States in Solids

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Physics ((LNP,volume 57))

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Abstract

By careful measurements and appropriate theory, we are able to observe and explain quantitatively for the first time major aspects of electron-hole drop nucleation phenomena in ultra-pure Ge. The free exciton-drop system above 1.3 K is shown to be always in a metastable state, i.e. dependent upon the history o£ optical excitation. We quantitatively explain the observed luminescence hysteresis and measure the drop surface tension, σ = 2.6 × 10−4 erg cm2 at 2 K. The metastability lifetime is experimentally found to be ≈ 8 × 106 sec. The gas-liquid up-going and down-going threshold curves are measured and explained using an exciton condensation energy ø ≅ 2 meV. The theory also predicts the drop radius and drop concentration as a function of temperature and excitation history.

Supported in part by the U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration

Fellow of the Schweizerischer Nationalfonds

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References

  1. For a review of electron-hole drops see Ya Pokrovskii: Phys. Stat. solidi (a) 11 (1972) 385; for a recent review see C. D. Jeffries: Science 189 (1975) 955.

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  3. Some results of this paper have been briefly published by R. M. Westervelt, J. L. Staehli and E. E. Haller: Bull. Am. Phys. Soc. 20 (1975) 471; J. L. Staehli, R. M. Westervelt and E. E. Haller: Bull. Am. Phys. Soc. 20 (1975) 471.

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  4. A detailed nucleation theory is given by R. M. Westervelt: Part I, Phys. Stat. sol. (b) 74 (1976) 727; and Part II, Phys. Stat. sol. (b), in press.

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  6. See, e.g. C. Kittel: Thermal Physics (John Wiley, New York, 1969) p. 163. For Ge we use the effective mass m* = 0.335 mo and degeneracy γ = 16, from ref. 2.At temperatures above ≈ 3 K, corrections to eq. 1 become significant, A. Frova, G. A. Thomas, R. E. Miller and E. O. Kane: Phys. Rev. Letters 34 (1975) 1572.

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  7. An equilibrium treatment of the effects of surface tension has been given by R. N. Silver: Phys. Rev. B11 (1975) 1569.

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  13. The value σ = 1.6 × 10−4 erg cm−2 is estimated by V. S. Bagaev, N. N. Sibeldin, and V. A. Tsvetkov: J.E.T.P. Letters 21 (1975) 80, by measuring the temperature dependence of the concentration of drops by light scattering. However, this paper uses an inaccurate equation (their eq. (2)) and classical nucleation theory. The paper of B. Etienne, C. Benoit â la Guillaume and M. Voos: Phys. Rev. Letters 35 (1975) 536 uses equilibrium theory to estimate an empirical value of (A/σ), where A is the Richardson-Dushman constant, not known for EHD.

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  14. A. S. Alekseev, T. A. Astemirov, V. S. Bagaev, T. I. Galkina, N. A. Penin, N. N. Sybeldin, V. A. Tsvetkov: Proc. of 12th Intern. Conf. on Physics of Semiconductors, Stuttgart (Teubner, Stuttgart, 1974) p.91.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of California, 94720, Berkeley, California, USA

    R. M. Westervelt, J. L. Staehli, E. E. Haller & C. D. Jeffries

Authors
  1. R. M. Westervelt
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  2. J. L. Staehli
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  3. E. E. Haller
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  4. C. D. Jeffries
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© 1976 Springer-Verlag

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Westervelt, R.M., Staehli, J.L., Haller, E.E., Jeffries, C.D. (1976). Nucleation phenomena in electron-hole drop condensation in ultra-pure Ge. In: Physics of Highly Excited States in Solids. Lecture Notes in Physics, vol 57. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-07991-2_98

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-07991-2_98

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-07991-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-37975-1

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