APS » PROLA » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 81 » Issue 25

Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 5664 - 5667 (1998)

Ultrafast Carrier Dynamics in Silicon: A Two-Color Transient Reflection Grating Study on a (111) Surface

Download: PDF (154 kB) or Buy this Article (Use Article Pack) Export: BibTeX or EndNote (RIS)

Theodore Sjodin1, Hrvoje Petek2, and Hai-Lung Dai1 *
1Laboratory for Research on the Structure of Matter, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-6202
2Advanced Research Laboratory, Hitachi Ltd., Hatoyama, Saitama 350-03 Japan

Received 4 August 1998

The dynamics of excited carriers generated near a silicon surface were characterized on femtosecond time scales using the transient grating technique in the reflection configuration. For electrons in the energy range 1.4±0.6 eV above the conduction band edge and their corresponding holes, the lifetime for relaxation through phonon scattering at carrier densities below 1020  cm-3 was determined to be 240 fs. This relaxation time increased sharply for carrier densities higher than 5×1020  cm-3, providing the first direct evidence for charge screening of carrier-phonon scattering in Si.


©1998 The American Physical Society

URL: http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v81/p5664
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.81.5664
PACS: 78.47.+p, 73.50.Gr

* To whom all correspondence should be addressed. Department of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6323. Electronic address: dai@sas.upenn.edu.

[ Abstract  |  Previous article  |  Next article  |  Issue 25 ]