Abstract

It has been established experimentally in a number of wide gap II–VI semiconductors, notably ZnTe, that the recombination spectrum of photon energies at and above the band gap often consists of well defined peaks which are separated by LO phonon energies. These peaks follow the photon energy of excitation and are in that sense Ramanlike. Many orders may be seen with strong resonance enhancement at the band gap.¹ The physical issues subject to debate have been (1) the distinction between hot luminescence (HL) and resonance Raman scattering (RRS) and (2) whether the energetically relaxing electron-hole pair maintains an excitonlike character throughout the entire secondary emission process. We show here how the availability of a ZnTe based quantum well with advanced experimental methods gives us direct insight into this problem.

© 1990 Optical Society of America