Radioactive isotopes in photoluminescence experiments: Identification of defect levels

Magerle R, Burchard A, Deicher M, Kerle T, Pfeiffer W, Recknagel E. Radioactive isotopes in photoluminescence experiments: Identification of defect levels. Physical Review Letters. 1995;75(8):1594-1597.The characteristic lifetimes of radioactive isotopes can be used to label and identify defect levels in semiconductors which can be detected by photoluminescence (PL). This is demonstrated in GaAs doped with radioactive In-111. During its decay to Cd-111 all those PL peaks increase for which Cd accepters are involved. By deriving a quantitative relation between PL intensity and Cd concentration we show that this intensity increase is determined only by the nuclear lifetime of In-111. Thus we gain a complete and independent identification of the Cd related PL peaks in GaAs