Mechanical damage induced luminescence band in GaAs.
01 January 1985
In this paper we report the observation of a new luminescence band at 1.42 eV in the low temperature (10K) spectrum for bulk GaAs crystals when they are subjected to surface damage by saw cutting, mechanical polishing, and scribing. The band is observed in all crystals, independent of the growth method, dopant and conductivity type. We suggest that this new luminescence is a donor-acceptor pair transition involving defects introduced by the surface damage.