Electron spin resonance study of GaAs:Er,O grown by organometallic vapor phase epitaxy

Abstract

Electron spin resonance (ESR) measurements of GaAs:Er,O grown by organometallic vapor phase epitaxy have been performed at 9.49GHz from 4.5to13K. Several anisotropic ESR signals (A, B, C, and D) are observed, which is consistent with the previous reports. We reexamined the angular dependence and temperature dependence of the signals in detail. Our ESR results indicate that the direction of alignment of two oxygen atoms or two arsenic atoms for an Er-2O center deviates from the ⟨110⟩ direction in various ways, resulting in the various Er-2O centers. Our ESR results also indicate that the paramagnetic states of the Er centers in GaAs change to a singletlike nonmagnetic state below 8K. The ESR measurements under illumination have been performed to investigate the effect of photoexcitation of the host. This result indicates that the energy transfer efficiency from the host to the B center is especially large. We found that the luminescent Er-2O center B and another Er-2O center C considerably differ in the coupling with the lattice.