Consequences of Spatial Fluctuation of Coulomb Potential in AlGaAs with DX Centers

Electric charges on randomly distributed impurities in semiconductors produce a spatially fluctuating potential. When the impurities are partially filled, their occupancy is not random but there appears a spatial correlation of the impurity charges appearing due to the inter-impurity Coulomb interactions. We show that when these interactions are taken into account then (i) the activation energy of the electron concentration, (ii) thermal emission kinetics, (iii) capture kinetics, (iv) persistent photoconductivity kinetics and (v) the electron mobility (in a steady state as well as during transients) in GaAlAs:Si can be explained in a consistent way. The energy diagram con cerning the DX center levels with respect to minima of the conduction band as well as the capture and emission barriers (including the effect of the alloy splitting) is constructed within an approach making use of the notion of the impurity self-screening.