Identification of spin, charge states and optical transitions of vanadium impurities in GaAs

Abstract

With optically detected electron spin resonance the spectra of the two charge states of vanadium V2+(3d3) and V3+(3d2) in GaAs were investigated. A novel magneto-optical technique was used for the first time to determine the spin states of both configurations. The spin of the 3d3 configuration of V2+ is found to be a low spin S=1/2 and not a high spin S=3/2 according to Hund's rule. This confirms recent theoretical predictions. The optical transitions of each charge state could be determined separately and assigned to each spin state.