Photo-Induced Phenomena in Isolated Selenium Chains

Abstract

Photoacoustic spectroscopy, ESR and EXAFS measurements have been carried out on the Se chains isolated in the channels of mordenite crystal with 6.7 A diameter. The optical gap is estimated to be 2.3 eV at room temperature, which is much larger than that of trigonal Se. At low temperatures, illumination with the light having energy near or above the optical gap induces new absorption bands at 1.85 and 2.25 eV, which are associated with paramagnetic defects. Higher energy light (>2.9 eV) shifts the absorption edge to lower energy. The fluctuations in the covalent bond length increase with illumination, though the helical chain structure is preserved. These changes vanish by annealing at room temperature. The phenomena are reversible in the illumination and annealing cycle. The photo-induced absorption and the edge shift are reduced when the induced bands are excited optically.