INTRABAND INVERSION IN SEMICONDUCTORS WITH ULTRASHORT CARRIER LIFETIMES

We studied the lifetimes and the luminescence spectra of photoexcited carriers in H+-bombarded InP for different damage doses by means of fe mtosecond luminescence spectroscopy. The lifetime decreases down to 95 fs for a dose of 10(16) cm-2 and the time-integrated luminescence spe ctrum of this sample is inverted. Taking into account the different th ermalization and relaxation conditions for electrons and holes, we fin d that the time-averaged hole distribution is hot but thermalized, whe reas the time-averaged electron distribution is inverted, meaning that the electron distribution function increases with increasing energy w ithin the conduction band.