MECHANISM OF THE INTENSIFICATION OF F-F LUMINESCENCE IN SEMICONDUCTORS

The possible mechanisms for the increase in the f-f emission efficienc y in semiconductors doped with rare-earth elements, including when the f shell of the impurity center is excited as a result of Auger recomb ination of an electron-hole pair localized on an impurity atom, were c onsidered. Two new mechanisms for the excitation of f-f emission were analyzed. For the first mechanism, impurities are introduced into the heterostructure with quantum wells. For the second mechanism an extrin sic semiconductor is inserted into a quantizing magnetic field. It was shown that in each case the Coulomb excitation of an f electron of th e impurity atom in an electron-hole pair in the semiconductor is of a resonance character. In the process the f-f emission excitation effici ency increases by several orders of magnitude. (C) 1995 American Insti tute of Physics.