Persistent Photoconductivity And Thermal Recovery Kinetics Of Low Energy Ar + Bombarded GaAs

Kinetics of persistent photoconductivity, photoquenching, and thermal and optical recovery observed in low energy Ar+ bombarded on (100) GaAs surfaces have been investigated. Rate and transport equations for these processes were derived and simulated employing transport parameters, trap locations and densities determined by deep level transient spectroscopy. Excellent correlation was obtained between the results of preliminary simulation and the experimentally observed values. The exponential decay of persistent photoconductivity response curve was determined to be due to metastable electron traps with longer lifetime and is consistent with an earlier proposed model.