Crystal symmetry and pressure effects on the valence band structure of gamma-InSe and epsilon-GaSe: Transport measurements and electronic structure calculations.

This paper reports on Hall effect and resistivity measurements under high pressure up to 3–4 GPa in p-type gamma-indium selenide (InSe) (doped with As, Cd, or Zn) and epsilon-gallium selenide (GaSe) (doped with N or Sn). The pressure behavior of the hole concentration and mobility exhibits dramatic differences between the two layered compounds. While the hole concentration and mobility increase moderately and monotonously in epsilon-GaSe, a large increase of the hole concentration near 0.8 GPa and a large continuous increase of the hole mobility, which doubled its ambient pressure value by 3.2 GPa, is observed in gamma-InSe. Electronic structure calculations show that the different pressure behavior of hole transport parameters can be accounted for by the evolution of the valence-band maximum in each material under compression. While the shape of the valence band maximum is virtually pressure-insensitive in epsilon-GaSe, it changes dramatically in gamma-InSe, with the emergence of a ring-shaped subsidiary maximum that becomes the absolute valence-band maximum as pressure increases. These differences are shown to be a consequence of the presence or absence of a symmetry element (mirror plane perpendicular to the anisotropy axis) in the point group of each polytype (D3h for the epsilon-polytype and C3v for the gamma-polytype), resulting in different selection rules that affect the k-vector ·p-vector interaction between valence bands