Photoacoustic study of the effect of 0.9 eV light illumination in semi-insulating GaAs

The effect of the secondary light illumination of hv = 0.9 eV on the photoquenched and the enhanced states in semi-insulating GaAs are investigated by using piezoelectric photoacoustic (PPA) measurements at 80 K. It is found that the secondary light causes an optical recovery from EL2* to EL2(0) and this is in agreement with the result reported by using infrared optical absorption measurements. We observed a broad peak around 0.9 eV after the secondary light illumination for the first time. The most important finding is that the PPA spectra after the secondary light illumination on the quenched and the enhanced states are the same in the whole photon energy region. We concluded that the secondary light of hv = 0.9 eV induces both an optical recovery and generation of metastable state of the EL6 level. The difference of the transformation rates of these two processes explains well the observed complex natures of the PPA signal under the secondary light illumination.