10 research outputs found
Electron-phonon renormalization of the absorption edge of the cuprous halides
Compared to most tetrahedral semiconductors, the temperature dependence of
the absorption edges of the cuprous halides (CuCl, CuBr, CuI) is very small.
CuCl and CuBr show a small increase of the gap with increasing
temperature, with a change in the slope of vs. at around 150 K: above
this temperature, the variation of with becomes even smaller. This
unusual behavior has been clarified for CuCl by measurements of the low
temperature gap vs. the isotopic masses of both constituents, yielding an
anomalous negative shift with increasing copper mass. Here we report the
isotope effects of Cu and Br on the gap of CuBr, and that of Cu on the gap of
CuI. The measured isotope effects allow us to understand the corresponding
temperature dependences, which we also report, to our knowledge for the first
time, in the case of CuI. These results enable us to develop a more
quantitative understanding of the phenomena mentioned for the three halides,
and to interpret other anomalies reported for the temperature dependence of the
absorption gap in copper and silver chalcogenides; similarities to the behavior
observed for the copper chalcopyrites are also pointed out.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.