Electronic transitions in CdTe under pressure

Abstract

We present a photoluminescence study of CdTe:Sb at 5 and 15 K under hydrostatic pressures of 0 to 32 kbar. We determine the pressure coefficients of several electronic transitions: the neutral-acceptor-bound exciton ${\mathit{A}}^0$X, its phonon replica ${\mathit{A}}^0$X-LO, the electron-to-acceptor transition e-${\mathit{A}}^0$, its phonon replica (e-${\mathit{A}}^0$)-LO, and four donor-acceptor peaks. A nonlinear pressure behavior is found for the main exciton peak. The linear term is 7.6±0.2 meV/kbar. We find that the binding energies of the ${\mathit{A}}^0$X and the bare acceptor change with pressure. This change influences acceptor-bound magnetic polaron binding energies in the ${\mathrm{Cd}}_{1\mathrm{-}\mathit{x}}$ ${\mathrm{Mn}}_{\mathit{x}}$Te alloys.