Optical Absorption and Energy Levels of Manganese in ZnS : Mn Crystals

Abstract

The energy of the ⁶S state of the 3d⁵ configuration of substitutional manganese is located with respect to the band structure of zinc sulfide by approximate theoretical methods and found to be consistent with a tight‐binding, crystal‐field analysis for the states of this impurity. In addition, the perturbation by the manganese of the band structure is estimated and found to be negligible. Optical absorption measurements are reported on a series of manganese‐activated crystals. The five absorption bands are ascribed to intercombination transitions in the 3d⁵ configuration of manganese. The intensities of these bands are linear in manganese concentration. The peak absorption energies are analyzed using the Racah coefficients and the crystal field as parameters, and the most probable identification of the transitions determined. The energy of the ⁶S state of substitutional chromium is also estimated and found to agree with experiment, thus supporting the approximate theoretical methods used for locating these impurity states with respect to band structure.