Theory of pressure effects on nonradiative capture

The pressure dependence of carrier capture by a deep level has been predicted by examining the pressure dependence of the electron-phonon coupling of a square-well model of a deep level. The logarithmic derivative d lnE0/dP of the deep-level binding energy E0 is found to be approximately one-half the logarithmic derivative d lnE/sub b//dP of the thermal barrier energy E/sub b/. The pressure dependence of deep-level transient spectroscopy data for the B center in GaAs is compared with the predicted pressure dependence. A model for the B center is proposed and interpretation of the data using this model leads to excellent agreement between experiment and theory