Intra-4f-shell luminescence excitation and quenching mechanism of Yb in InP

Abstract

The excitation and quenching mechanism of intra‐4f‐shell luminescence of Yb ions incorporated in an InP host is discussed. The discussion is based on experimental results of photoluminescence excitation spectra and photoluminescence time‐decay curves for crystals grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition and liquid‐phase epitaxy. The present as well as previously reported experimental results for samples grown by various methods can be consistently interpreted by considering a recently reported Yb‐related acceptorlike electron trap near the conduction‐band edge and by taking into account the shallow donor and acceptor as well as Yb concentrations in the samples. A model is proposed which describes the Yb intra‐4f‐shell excitation and quenching mechanisms for samples with various concentrations of the impurities.