Optical measurement system for characterizing compound semiconductor interface and surface states

An optical measurement system that is useful for the characterization of in terface and surface states on a,vide variety of compound semiconductor mate rial systems has been developed, The PC-based measurement system, using arg on ion laser elicitation from 10(-1) to 10(4) W/cm(2) pow er density and a light spot focused to a FWHM of 35 mu m, acquires photoluminescence (PL) sp ectra from a semiconductor material system over a dynamic intensity range o f more than eight orders of magnitude. The measured PL intensities that are evaluated using an er;tended, numerical self-consistent drift-diffusion mo del provide properties of interface and surface states such as density and capture cross section as well as derived quantities including nonradiative interface and surface recombination velocity.