Relaxation of excited donor states in silicon with emission of intervalley phonons

Abstract

The process of low-temperature relaxation of excited states of Group V donors in silicon due to coupling of electrons bound at Coulomb centers with intervalley phonons is analyzed. The rate of transitions from the 2p 0 state to the group of 1s(E, T 2) states with emission of the intervalley acoustic phonons LA-g and TA-f is calculated for the phosphorus, antimony, arsenic, and bismuth donors. It is shown that the TA-f phonons make a substantial contribution to nonradiative decay of the 2p 0 state that controls the stimulated infrared emission of the phosphorus and antimony donors in silicon.