Eur. Phys. J. B 50, 403-410 (2006)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2006-00154-5

Longitudinal-optical phonon hole-plasmon coupled modes in heavily doped p-type GaSb:Zn epitaxial films

¹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, 30303, USA
² Electro-Optics Division, Soreq Nuclear Research Center (NRC), Yavne, 81800, Israel
³ Department of Physics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 1954 Hua Shan Road, Shanghai, 200030, P.R. China

Corresponding authors: ^a Zhigao.Hu@urz.uni-heidelberg.de - ^b uperera@gsu.edu

Received: 25 August 2005
Revised: 10 January 2006
Published online: 5 May 2006

Abstract

Reflectance measurements from p-type GaSb:Zn epitaxial films with different hole concentrations (10¹⁷–10¹⁸ cm^-3) have been investigated over the frequency region of 100–1000 cm^-1. A minimum broadening feature corresponding to the hole plasmon was observed in the reflectance spectra. The experimental infrared spectra were well fitted using a Lorentz-Drude dispersion model. The real part ε₁ of the dielectric function decreases with increasing hole concentration. However, the imaginary part ε₂ increases with hole concentration in the far-infrared region. This indicates that the acoustic- and optic-phonons mainly participate in the free carrier absorption processes. The hole mobility obtained from Hall-effect measurements is slightly larger than that derived from optical measurements and the average ratio of mobilities is estimated to be 1.33. Owing to overdamping effects, the upper branch of longitudinal-optical phonon plasmon (LPP) coupled modes was observed. The upper LPP⁺ frequency increases with hole concentration and it shows a transition from phonon-like to plasmon-like behavior. A theoretical analysis with solutions in the complex frequency plane describes these experimental results.