Anisotropy of photoconductivity and nonlinear effects in GaSe monocrystals at high optical excitation

Abstract

In this work, the photoelectric properties of gallium selenide (GaSe) monocrystals in the edge absorption region, with various configurations of current contacts, at low and high optical excitation levels are investigated. The photoconductivity spectrum behavior is determined by localized electronic and excitonic states along c-axis. It is shown that the localization of electronic and excitonic states in one-dimensional fluctuation potential along c-axis results to an anisotropy in photoconductivity spectrum at various current contacts configurations. At E ⊥ c the photoconductivity is observed in the hν < E g and hν > E g regions. In the case of hv < E g , the maximum photoconductivity, in the impurity and exciton absorption region are observed at 1.975 eV and 2.102 eV, respectively. With rising of excitation energy level, suppression of photoconductivity in the exciton absorption region and increases in impurity absorption region is observed. At E | | c contact configuration, the considerable photoconductivity is observed only in the impurity absorption region, which also increases with rising of excitation level. It is supposed that, suppression of photoconductivity in the exciton absorption region at high excitation levels is connected with exciton–exciton interaction, which results to a nonlinear light absorption. The results are compared with the absorption and photoluminescence measurements.