Molecular Model for the Radiative Dipole Strengths and Lifetimes of the Fluorescent Levels of Mn2+and Fe3+ in II‐VI And III‐V Compounds

A molecular model is used to give an overall semi‐phenomenological interpretation of the radiative transition probabilities (RTP) or radiative lifetimes (RL) of Mn2+ and Fe3+ in II‐VI and III‐V compounds. It is shown that the RTP’s are primarily controlled by: (i) the mixing of the wavefunctions of the cation and of the ligands (ii) the molecular spin‐orbit interaction which involves the spin‐orbit coupling constants ζd of the d electrons of the cation and ζp of the p electrons of the ligands and (iii) the energies of the intermediate levels which appear in the perturbation model.