Semiconductor electrons in electric and magnetic fields

Abstract

Optical properties of semiconductors in the simultaneous presence of electric and magnetic fields are reviewed, with particular emphasis on the possibilities of modulation techniques. First, the problem of an electron in crossed and parallel fields is solved in the one-level effective mass approximation (EMA), and the results are used to interpret the experimental interband transitions in Ge, with due account of the degenerate character of the valence band in this material. The limitations of the one-level EMA are discussed, and the two-level model is introduced, which correctly describes the experimentally observed transition from a magnetic type to an electric type of motion in increasing transverse electric field. Possibilities to observe electric field effects in cyclotron resonance transitions are discussed in this approximation. Finally, the three-level model is used to describe properly both orbital and spin properties of conduction electrons. It is demonstrated that in a small-gap semiconductor with large spin-orbit interaction a sufficiently strong transverse electric field destroys the Landau orbital quantization but not the Pauli spin quantization. Possible experimental consequences of this situation are discussed. Influence of finite dimensions of the sample on the character of the electron motion in crossed and parallel fields is examined. A possibility to achieve the semiconductor-semimetal transition in a symmetryinduced zero-gap semiconductor in crossed field configuration is predicted and described, taking into account the Luttinger effects in the magnetic level structure.