Photon assisted Lévy flights of minority carriers in n-InP

Abstract

We study the photoluminescence spectra of n-doped InP bulk wafers, both in the reflection and the transmission geometries relative to the excitation beam. From the observed spectra we estimate the spatial distribution of minority carriers allowing for the spectral filtering due to reabsorption of luminescence in the wafer. This distribution unambiguously demonstrates a non-exponential drop-off with distance from the excitation region. Such a behavior evidences an anomalous photon-assisted transport of minority carriers enhanced owing to the high quantum efficiency of emission. It is shown that the transport conforms very well to the so-called Lévy-flights process corresponding to a peculiar random walk that does not reduce to diffusion. The index γ of the Lévy flights distribution is found to be in the range γ=0.64–0.79, depending on the doping. Thus, we propose the high-efficiency direct-gap semiconductors as a remarkable laboratory system for studying the anomalous transport.