Dynamics of non-equilibrium charge carriers in p-germanium doped by gallium

The low-temperature relaxation processes of non-equilibrium holes into gallium centers in moderately doped p-germanium (NA ≈ 2×10^15 cm-3) has been investigated by a degenerate pump-probe experiment using the free electron laser FELBE. The capture time decreases with increasing average photon flux density of the excitation pulse from about 10.9 ns (at ~1.2×10^24 cm-2 s-1) to ~1.2 ns (~2×10^26 cm-2 s-1). Relaxation inside the valence band is almost independent on pump light intensity and its characteristic time is about 200 ps. In Addition, the intracenter relaxation times of the lowest excited Ga states were measured. The lifetimes scale with the phonon density of states controlling a bound hole – acoustic phonon interaction. The lifetime of the lowest excited state, 1Γ_8^-, was measured to be ~275 ps; while the lifetimes of the higher excited states, 2Γ_8^-and 3Γ_8^-, were found to be ~157 ps and 162 ps, respectively.