Photon drag and other emfs induced in tellurium by a TEA CO2 laser

Abstract

The longitudinal photon drag signal has been isolated from other interfering emfs generated in high‐purity good‐quality tellurium single crystals illuminated by 10.6‐μ radiation from a pulsed TEA CO₂ laser. The observed value of 10 mV/MW cm⁻² at room temperature for the photon drag signal with E∥c and its temperature dependence down to 125 °K agree with the generally accepted theoretical expression. At room temperature the heavy hole momentum relaxation time has been calcualted to be 1.7 × 10⁻¹³ sec. Signals corresponding to a third‐rank tensorial effect have been occasionally measured at low temperatures, particularly when defects or dislocations have been introduced into the samples.