Ligand-field model for the electronic structure of the fluorescent levels of d 5 ions in II–VI compounds

Abstract

An analysis of the first-order spin-orbit (SO) interaction for the fluorescent levels of Mn 2+ in the common cation series ZnS, ZnSe, ZnS and also in CdTe shows that, with respect to the results of the crystal-field model, the SO interaction is strongly reduced for the fluorescent state of Mn in ZnS and strongly enhanced and of opposite sign for ZnSe, ZnS and CdTe. It is shown that, for ligands Se and Te, the molecular SO interaction is primarily controlled by the large SO coupling constants of the electrons 4p(Se) and 5p(Te) of the ligands.