PHOTOLUMINESCENCE SPECTROSCOPY OF CRYSTALLINE SEMICONDUCTORS

The objective of this review article is to give an overview of the cur rent state-of-the-art of photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy as a char acterization tool in the study of semiconductors. A detailed descripti on of all of the PL spectroscopic techniques will be given together wi th examples from the literature of their use. These examples will be t he primary tool used to convey the essential aspects and usefulness of the variety of PL techniques discussed throughout this review. The pr imary examples of semiconductor materials examined with these techniqu es will be of the prototypical direct-gap and indirect-gap semiconduct ors, gallium arsenide and silicon, respectively. Additionally, PL char acterization of structures with lower dimensionality (quantum wells, s uperlattices, quantum wires, and quantum dots) will be shown. This art icle will not cover the history of this type of spectroscopy, inelasti c light scattering, infrared spectroscopy, or reflectance, etc. The fo cus is intended to be experimental in nature, and will be supplemented by theory where appropriate and necessary. There are several fine rev iew articles and books dealing with the subject of photoluminescence, and radiative recombination in general, and this article is only inten ded to supplement these sources. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science S.A.