Interaction of optical phonons with a one-component plasma

Abstract

The effect of a strongly damped, thermally excited, one-component electronic plasma on near-zone-center longitudinal-optical phonons in GaP has been studied in detail. The bandwidths, peak positions, and spectral functions as obtained from incoherent Raman scattering compare very well with the expected dielectric response of a phonon-plasma coupled mode. It is possible to recover, by these means, the dependence of the effective phonon damping rate, the plasma damping rate, and the plasma frequency on the ambient temperature and the carrier concentration.