Dynamics of Photo-Excited Carriers and Coherent Effects in 

GaN Under Subpicosecond Laser Pulse Excitation

by Sergey Rudin, Enrico Bellotti, Gregory A. Garrett, and Michael Wraback

ARL-TR-5403 November 2010

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Army Research Laboratory

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ARL-TR-5403 November 2010

Dynamics of Photo-Excited Carriers and Coherent Effects in 

GaN Under Subpicosecond Laser Pulse Excitation

Sergey Rudin, Gregory A. Garrett, and Michael Wraback

Sensors and Electron Devices Directorate, ARL

Enrico Bellotti

Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Boston University

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4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE

Dynamics of Photo-Excited Carriers and Coherent Effects in GaN Under 

Subpicosecond Laser Pulse Excitation

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Sergey Rudin, Enrico Bellotti, Gregory A. Garrett, and Michael Wraback

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14. ABSTRACT

We applied the Semiconductor Bloch Equations formalism to study the subpicosecond dynamics of photo-excited carriers in

gallium nitride (GaN). The kinetics equations were derived using a two-band model and taking into account the coherent 

interaction of semiconductor with the short laser pulse. Various scattering terms due to interaction of carriers with polar 

optical phonons and carrier-carrier interaction were taken into account. Effects of the conduction band nonparabolicity and 

static screening were included in our theory. We find reasonable agreement with the experimental results on the time-resolved 

photoluminescence rise-time dependence on excitation energy and carrier density, thus confirming the dominant role of polar 

optical phonons in the subpicosecond dynamics, and the effects of screening. 

15. SUBJECT TERMS

Photoexcitation, GaN, laser pulses

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Sergey Rudin

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(301) 394-0206

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iii

Contents

List of Figures iv

Acknowledgment v

1. Summary 1

2. Introduction 1

3. Intraband Carrier Scattering Processes 3

4. Derivation of Kinetic Equations 9

4.1 Single-Particle Problem.................................................................................................10

4.2 Carrier-phonon Interaction............................................................................................12

4.3 Carrier-carrier Interaction..............................................................................................15

4.4 Kinetic Equations to the Second-order in Carrier-phonon and Carrier-carrier 

Interactions.............................................................................................................................17

4.5 Luminescence Spectrum................................................................................................18

5. Relaxation Time Approximation 19

6. Experimental Studies of the Time Resolved Spectroscopy of UV Luminescence 20

7. Monte Carlo Simulation of Kinetic Equations 24

8. Conclusions 25

9. References 27

List of Acronyms and Abbreviations 28

Distribution List 29
iv

List of Figures

Figure 1. A classical light pulse whose central Fourier component has frequency ν excites 

electrons and holes in a semiconductor sample. The non-equilibrium distributions of 

electrons in the conduction band and heavy holes in the valence band undergo intraband 

relaxation and subsequent interband recombination with light emission. The intraband 

processes included in this work are carrier-phonon and carrier-carrier scatterings. The 

effects of the trap states indicated in the figure are not included..............................................2

Figure 2. Left panel: scattering times for electron (solid curve) and heavy hole (dashed 

curve) interacting with polar LO phonons. The corresponding momentum (middle panel) 

and energy (right panel) relaxation times. .................................................................................4

Figure 3. Polar optical phonon scattering rate for non-parabolic band...........................................5

Figure 4. Polar optical phonon scattering rate for non-parabolic band with screening. .................5

Figure 5. Electron momentum relaxation times obtained from thermally averaged 

momentum scattering rates, and are shown as functions of electron temperature Te. The 

lattice temperature was set to T0 = 300 K, electron density n = 1018 cm–3................................7

Figure 6. Electron-plasmon scattering time for spontaneous plasmon emission shown as a 

function of electron energy for two values of density. .............................................................8

Figure 7. Luminescence evaluated in relaxation model at room temperature for three values 

of excitation energy relative to the band gap, at two different values of excitation power. ...20

Figure 8. A schematic representation of the setup for the time-resolved photoluminescence 

experiment. A Ti:Sapphire laser produces 150 fs, 5 mJ, 800 nm pulses. Part of the beam 

pumps an optical parametric amplifier tunable from 720 to 450 nm. An up-converted 

beam with pulses tunable from 360 to 225 nm and widths of 50 to 80 fs, pumps energy 

from 3.44 to 5.5 eV, suitable for studying nitride materials, generates electron-hole pairs 

in a GaN sample.......................................................................................................................21

Figure 9. The upper part illustrates the energy position of 2 mW pump pulse, at 308 nm 

wavelength, and four different values of emission energy. The band edge exciton 

luminescence lineshape is also shown. The lower part shows the time dependence of the 

measured photoluminescence at those values of emission energy, set near the band edge 

(black), ħωLO (red), 2 ħωLO (green), and 3ħωLO (blue), where ħωLO referes to the energy 

of a polar longitudinal phonon, 91.2 meV. ..............................................................................22

Figure 10. Time evolution of photo-luminescence from GaN at different wavelengths. The 

pump wavelength is 308 nm, at two values of the pump power, 0.66 mW (left panel) and 

2 mW (right panel)...................................................................................................................22

Figure 11. Pump power dependence of 355.6 nm emission showing an increase in rise time 

at higher density due to screening of the electron-LO phonon interaction.............................23

Figure 12. Theoretical luminescence from photo-excited GaN obtained by Monte Carlo 

simulation of kinetics equations. Luminescence is shown as function of time at four 

different energies, at the band edge and at one, two, and three times LO-phonon energy 

above the band gap...................................................................................................................25
v

Acknowledgment

We thank Anand Sampath for the material growth. We also thank Yang Wang for useful 

discussions and numerical work in the earlier stages of this project.
vi

INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK.
1

1. Summary

We present a theoretical and experimental study of subpicosecond kinetics of photo-excited 

carriers in bulk gallium nitride (GaN). The theoretical model uses a simple two-band 

approximation with the conduction band nonparabolicity taken into account. The scattering 

mechanisms included in this work are interactions of carriers with polar optical phonons and 

carrier-carrier Coulomb interaction. Interaction of the semiconductor with the exciting laser 

pulse is treated coherently, while the scatterings are included in the stochastic Monte Carlo 

solution of the kinetic equations. The theoretical results are compared with the experimental 

results of the time-resolved photoluminescence induced by a 100-femtosecond (fs) pulse.

2. Introduction

Ultrafast phenomena in photo-excited semiconductors are of great interest, both theoretically and 

experimentally. On the experimental side, ultrafast laser technology improved the time resolution 

of measurements of carrier dynamics. On the time scale of 100 fs, both coherent and noncoherent processes contribute to the observed carrier dynamics. On the theoretical side, there has 

been much progress toward explaining the experimental results related to dynamics of hot 

carriers in gallium arsenide (GaAs) and related compounds (1). The more traditional approach 

employs the semi-classical Boltzmann equation that describes the time evolution of carrier 

density distributions. That equation can be studied by various numerical methods. An especially 

efficient approach to finding its solutions for given initial conditions is the Monte Carlo 

simulation (2). Because the interband polarization is not included in the Boltzmann transport 

equations, the coherent effects due to the interaction of the external light field with the 

semiconductor, and the excitonic effects due to electron-hole interactions, cannot be studied in 

the semiclassical approximation. For the purpose of modeling various ultrafast phenomena, the 

density matrix formalism provides a consistent description (3). This approach uses perturbation 

theory to obtain the equations of motion for the distribution functions of hot carriers and for the 

interband polarization, and takes coherent and dephasing processes into account in a consistent 

way. The resulting coupled equations are referred to as Semiconductor Bloch Equations (3)

(SBE), and they replace the Boltzmann transport equation.

In good-quality polar semiconductors, one of the main energy and momentum relaxation 

mechanisms in carrier kinetics is the interaction of carriers with longitudinal optical (LO) 

phonons via the Frohlich interaction (4). In GaAs, the relaxation rate of electrons at slightly 

above 1 LO phonon energy is calculated to be about 140 fs (5). GaN has larger polarizability,

and the electron-phonon emission rates are an order of magnitude higher than in GaAs. In 
2

particular, the relaxation rate of electrons at slightly above 1 LO phonon energy is calculated to 

be about 12 fs (6). Therefore, the carrier dynamics in GaN can be substantially different from 

dynamics in GaAs. This feature is particularly important in understanding the kinetics of the 

electron-hole plasma generated by sort laser pulses. 

The carrier kinetics study of GaN presented here was motivated by the current interest in 

application of nitride semiconductors in ultraviolet (UV) optoelectronics, and high temperature 

and power electronics. The study can be extended to aluminum gallium nitride (AlGaN)

compounds. The UV-emitters and UV-detectors in the wavelength region from 300–360 nm and 

from 250–270 nm will serve as important building blocks of the new generation of biological 

agent detection systems. GaN is potentially important in many applications, such as power and 

optoelectronics devices, because it has a number of favorable features, among these a large band 

gap, high saturation velocity, and high breakdown electric field. A better understanding of hot 

carrier dynamics can greatly improve the knowledge of the material and design issues, and the 

performance of devices.

In this work, we use the SBE formalism to study the dynamics of carriers in bulk GaN under 

subpicosecond laser pulse excitation, and we compare the theoretical results with the 

experimental results obtained by time-resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) studies (7). The 

kinetic problem we investigate here is illustrated schematically in figure 1.

Figure 1. A classical light pulse whose central Fourier component has frequency ν 

excites electrons and holes in a semiconductor sample. The non-equilibrium 

distributions of electrons in the conduction band and heavy holes in the valence 

band undergo intraband relaxation and subsequent interband recombination with 

light emission. The intraband processes included in this work are carrier-phonon 

and carrier-carrier scatterings. The effects of the trap states indicated in the figure 

are not included.

In section 3, we compare single-carrier scattering rates due to various interactions and compare 

their thermal averages for the equilibrium distributions. We find that with the material 
3

parameters established for the bulk GaN, the intraband relaxation is dominated by the carrier 

interactions with LO phonons. In section 4, we establish the kinetic equations—the SBE derived 

from the Heisenberg equations of motion. A simple relaxation time approximation is considered

in section 5, where the effects of coherence and dephasing in the interband luminescence are 

discussed. The theoretical model was developed in conjunction with the experimental studies of 

the time-resolved spectroscopy of UV luminescence outlined in section 6. The numerical 

solutions of the SBE were performed using the Monte Carlo method, following the approach of 

Kuhn and Rossi to account for the effects of the interband polarization (8, 9). The results 

corresponding to lower excitation power are presented in section 7, where they are compared to 

the available experimental results.

3. Intraband Carrier Scattering Processes

In this work, we use an isotropic two-band model for the Γ valley of conduction electrons with 

mass me = 0.2m0 and heavy holes with mass mh = 1.1m0, where m0 is the vacuum electron mass. 

The nonparabolicity of the conduction band of GaN will be taken into account by analytical 

approximation similar to the one obtained in Kane’s model for a cubic structure (10)

2 2

e

k

E(1 αE) γ(E) ,

2m

  

(1)

where α = (1 – me/m0)

2

(1/Eg). The value of the nonparabolicity coefficient α obtained for the 

wurtzite GaN from full band structure calculations (11) turns out to be considerably larger—

about 0.37 eV–1. As an approximation here, we will use α ≈ 1/Eg. The following values will be 

assumed: me = 0.2m0, mh = 1.1m0, and Eg = 3.39 eV.

We assume dispersionless LO phonons with energy ħωLO = 91.2 meV. For the scattering of 

carriers by LO phonons via the Frohlich interaction, the matrix element in a sample of volume V

is 

1/2 2

α α

FR

s 0 s

LO e ω 1 1 M (k,k q) I (k,k q)

qε ε V ε ε 

   

           

(2)

in SI units, where εs = 5.35, ε∞ = 8.9, and the vacuum ε0 = 8.854×10–12 F/m. The overlap 

integrals (4) I(k,k ́) are given by 

   

  

1/2 1/2 1/2

e k k k k kk

1/2

k k

1 αE 1 αE α(E E ) cosθ

I ( )

1 2αE 1 2αE

  



   



     

k,k

(3)

for the conduction band, and by
4

 

1/2 h 2

kk

1

2

I ( ) 1 3cos θ  k,k  

(4)

for the valence band, where θkk ́ is the angle between the initial and final momenta. The 

scattering rate is obtained using the Fermi Golden Rule:

 

3

2

3 k k k k LO k k k k LO

d k Γ( ) (2π/ )V M( ) (N 1)δ(E E - ω ) N δ(E E ω )

(2π)      



      



k k,k

(5)

where Nq is the occupation number of LO phonons, [exp(ħωLO/kBT) – 1]–1.

The scattering time defined as ħ/Γ is shown in figure 2 as a function of carrier energy above the 

band edge for the parabolic case. The corresponding momentum and energy relaxation times (4)

are also shown. 

Figure 2. Left panel: scattering times for electron (solid curve) and heavy hole (dashed curve) interacting 

with polar LO phonons. The corresponding momentum (middle panel) and energy (right panel)

relaxation times.

In the presence of other free carriers, the carrier interaction with polar phonons is screened. In 

the static limit, the screened Frohlich interaction matrix element takes form (12)

1/2 2

α α

FR 2 2

0 s

LO e ω 1 1 q M ( ) I ( ) ,

ε V ε ε q  

   

            k,k q k,k q

(6)

where the static reciprocal screening length is given by (3)

1 2 α

2 α k

s 0 k,α

e E (k) f

κ

ε ε V k k



     

            

(7)

in terms of electron and hole distribution functions feand fh. The effects of nonparabolicity and 

screening on the electron-LO phonon scattering rates are shown in figures 3 and 4.
5

Figure 3. Polar optical phonon scattering rate for non-parabolic band.

Figure 4. Polar optical phonon scattering rate for non-parabolic band with screening.

The nonparabolicity of the conduction band increases the emission rate of LO phonons for 

electrons with energy exceeding 0.4 V above the band edge. This is what prevents the runaway 

hot electron effect in GaN in strong applied field. Both the nonparabolicity and screening will be 

taken into account later in the numerical simulation of the hot carrier kinetics.
6

The carrier-carrier scattering proceeds via screened Coulomb interaction:

2

q 2 2

0 s

e 1 V ,

ε ε V q κ





(8)

with the screening wave-vector κ given in equation 7. In the non-degenerate case of carriers with 

densities ne and nh at temperature T, κ becomes the Debye reciprocal screening length defined by 

κ0

2

= e

2

(ne+nh)/ε0εskBT, while in the strongly degenerate case it becomes the Thomas-Fermi 

wave-vector. For the scattering of carriers by ionized impurities, we assume the same screened 

Coulomb potential as in equation 8, the Brooks-Herring model (4).

The criterion for the applicability of classical statistics is the smallness of the thermal wavelength 

λ = (2πħ2/mekBT)1/2. The electron gas is classical if λ3n << 1, and the quantum statistics are to be 

used if λ3n > 1. For electrons in GaN at room temperature, we obtain λ3n ≈ 0.9 if n = 1018 cm–3. 

Therefore, the electrons become degenerate if n >1018 cm–3.

Consider next the scattering of carriers by acoustic phonons. For the deformation potential 

interaction the matrix element, assuming a parabolic band and linear phonon dispersion, is given 

by (13)

1/2

DP

q M (k,k q) D ,

2ρuV

 

     

(9)

where D is band deformation potential, ρ is the density, and u is the sound velocity. For GaN ρ = 

6.15 g/cm3, u = 6.56 Km/s, and D = 8.3 eV for the conduction band. For the unscreened 

piezoelectric interaction 

1/2

0 s

2

j i

PE

q ε ε 2ρuqV

eq q e ξ

M (k, k q) 











 

l l,ij 

,

(10)

where el,ij is the third rank tensor of the piezoelectric constants, ξ is a unit polarization vector, 

and summation over repeated indices is implied.

It is generally the case in polar semiconductors that the largest contribution to the electron 

scattering rate comes from the electron interaction with polar optical phonons (3, 4). In order to 

compare the scattering rates due to different interactions in GaN, let us consider the electron 

momentum scattering rates (see reference 4 for the definition) and then evaluate their thermal 

averages for the case of a quasi-equilibrium distribution characterized by electron temperature Te

for the non-degenerate case and a parabolic band. The corresponding momentum relaxation 

times are shown in figure 5 as functions of electron temperature Te/T0 where T0 = 300 K. The 

electron density was set to n = 1018cm

–3

, and the impurity density nimp = 1017cm

–3

.
7

Figure 5. Electron momentum relaxation times obtained 

from thermally averaged momentum scattering 

rates, and are shown as functions of electron 

temperature Te. The lattice temperature was set to 

T0 = 300 K, electron density n = 1018 cm–3.

From these quasi-equilibrium results, we expect that on the subpicosecond scale the carrier 

kinetics are dominated by the interactions with polar optical phonons. In the carrier-carrier 

scattering considered previously, we assumed static screening. When the dynamic screening 

effects are taken into account, one finds that the electron-hole semiconductor plasma can sustain 

collective charge density waves, or the plasma oscillations. An electron or a hole whose kinetic 

energy exceeds a certain threshold value can lose its energy to the collective excitation. The 

quantum mechanical picture is that of emission of plasmon by a single particle. Alternatively,

one can look at the Fermi quasi-particle scattering rate evaluated in the Random Phase 

Approximation (RPA) and obtain a similar result (14). In the long wavelength limit, the 

frequency for the two component case is obtained as 

2

2 α

0

α 0 s α

e n

ω ,

ε ε m



(11)

in the case of photo-excited electrons and holes ne = nh = n and ω0

2

= ne

2

/mrε0εs, where we 

defined the reduced mass mr = (me

–1

+ mh

–1

)

–1

. For GaN, we then obtain

0

0

1/2

n

ω 30.3 .

n

 

    meV

(12)

The matrix element for the carrier-plasmon interaction is given by (15)

1/2 2 3 2

α-pl 2

0 s α p

e 2 q M ( ) ,

2ε ε m V 2ω (q)q

   

     

q k k,k q

(13)
8

where ωp(q) is the plasma frequency. Its value at q = 0 is given by ω0. In order to estimate the 

electron-plasmon scattering rate, we consider a degenerate electron gas characterized by its 

separate Fermi energy EF = (ħ2/2me)(3π2n)2/3, not related to the chemical potential of the 

equilibrium electron-hole plasma. The plasmon as a well-defined collective excitation is 

restricted to q < qc, where qc is the threshold for plasmon decay into the quasi-particle 

continuum, obtained from the zeroes of the dielectric function in RPA:

2

c F c

0

e e

q k q

ω

m 2m

 

(14)

If the electron energy, Ek, is much greater than ħω0, the rate of spontaneous plasmon emission 

can be approximated (2) as

2

e 0 c

2

0 s e 0

m e ω kq Γ(k) ln ,

4πε ε k m ω

 

    

(15)

which can be rewritten in terms of electron energy E:



















































































































1/2

0

F

1/2

0

F

0

1/2

0

1/4

0

0

E

E

E

E

1

E

E

ln 2

E

E

n

n

Γ Γ

,

(16)

where 1/Γ0 = τ0 ≈ 20.5 fs, E0 = ħω0, and n0 = 1018cm

–3

. The corresponding scattering time is 

shown in figure 6 as a function of energy.

Figure 6. Electron-plasmon scattering time for 

spontaneous plasmon emission shown as 

a function of electron energy for two values 

of density.
9

We see that the electron-plasmon scattering rate is by a factor of three smaller than the electronLO phonon rate. In our treatment of SBE, the dynamic screening effects can be accounted for by 

some of the terms that appear in the second order in carrier-carrier interaction (1). We did not 

include them in this work, but they should be included in the future work.

4. Derivation of Kinetic Equations

The two-band model of carriers (conduction band electrons and valence band holes), interacting 

with phonons and subjected to a semiclassical electric field, can be defined in terms of creation 

and annihilation operators for electrons and holes ck

+

, dk

+

,ck, dk with Fermi anti-commutation 

relations, and for phonons, bk and bk

+ with Bose commutation relations (3). The Hamiltonian of 

the system is given by H = H0 + Hc-ph + Hc-c, where the first term includes non-interacting 

carriers in applied field E(t) and unperturbed phonons, the second term describes interaction of 

carriers with phonons, and the third term describes carrier-carrier interaction. The H0 is given by

P P

e h

0 k k k k q q

k k k

iω t iω t

k k k k k k

k

H ε (k)c c ε (k)d d ω(q)b b

M E(t)e c d M E(t)e d c

  

   

 

  

     

  



 

,

(17)

where E(t) = E0exp(t2/τp

2

) for a Gaussian pulse. The electron and hole energies are given by εe(k) 

= Eg + ħ

2

k

2

/2me and ε

h

(k) = ħ

2

k

2

/2mh for parabolic bands, and by equation 1 if the 

nonparabolicity of the conduction band is included. The optical dipole matrix element in the 

parabolic bands approximation is given by 

1

2 2

k cv

r g

k M d 1

2m E



 

       

 , (18)

which can be approximated by a constant, Mk ≈ dcv, for large band gap values. The interband 

electric dipole dcv is related to interband momentum matrix element, dcv/e = ħpcv/Egm0, and in the 

effective mass approximation for two-band model

1/2

0 e

cv

g 0

1 m /m d /e ,

2E m

   

      

(19)

from which we obtain dcv/e ≈ 2.12 Å.

The carrier-phonon interaction Hamiltonian is given by 

e e h h

c ph k,k q k q q k k,k q k q k q k,k q k q q k k,k q k q k q

k,q

H γ c b c γ c b c γ d b d γ d b d ,        

                

(20)
10

where for interaction with polar optical phonons the interaction matrix element γ

e

k,k+q = – γ

h

k,k+q

= MFR(k,k+q) is given in equation 6, and

c c q k p p q k q k p p q k q k p p q k q

k,p,q

1 1

2 2

H V c c c c d d d d c d d c ,      

        

 

       

(21)

where Vq is given in equation 8.

The kinetic variables are the distribution functions of carriers and phonons fk

α

and Nq, and the 

interband polarization pk:

e h

k k k k k k k k k q q q f (t) c (t)c (t) f (t) d (t)d (t) p (t) d (t)c (t) N b b ,   

    

(22)

where all the operators are in Heisenberg representation, and the expectation values are taken 

with respect to initial state of the system, which is the vacuum of electron-hole pairs and a 

thermal phonon distribution. The kinetic equations, the SBE, can be derived using the equation 

of motion for a quantum operator OH(t) in Heisenberg representation, iħ∂tOH = [OH,H].

4.1 Single-particle Problem

The evolution equations of non-interacting carriers under the action of Hamiltonian H0 describe 

the generation of electron-hole pairs in a homogeneous bulk semiconductor by the action of a 

homogeneous electric field:

   

 

0 0 e h

k k 0

k

df df g (t)

dt dt

  

(23)

 

   

0

iω t k e h e h

k k 0 k k

P

dp 1

ε (k) ε ( k) p M E (t)e 1 f f

dt i



          

(24)

with the generation rate 

  0 iω t iω t

k k k k k

P P 1

g (t) M E(t)e p M E(t)e p

i

  

     

 . (25)

These equations describe a set of independent two-level systems driven by an external field, with 

a variable detuning Δk between the transition energy and the light central frequency,

e h Δ ε (k) ε (k) ω k p    . (26)

The dynamics at this zero-order approximation are fully coherent. The corresponding Rabi 

frequency (3) is 

0 cv 0

R

d E Ω  . (27)
11

When the carrier-carrier interactions are taken into account, this value of the Rabi frequency will 

be changed (renormalized) by the Hartree-Fock terms (3). The intensity of the pulse is 

proportional to │E(t)│2; therefore, if the width of the intensity is τw = 100 ft, the corresponding 

field pulse widths is τp = 85 fs. The electric field E(t) = Re E0exp(iωpt – t

2

/τp

2

), and its Fourier 

transform is 

2 2

p p p (ω ω ) τ /4 τ

E(ω) e

2

 

 ; (28)

the energy width is, therefore, δE = 2ħ/τp ≈ 15 meV. 

We have to relate the field strength to the power of the incident pulse train used in the 

experiments. The energy flux in a single pulse is S0(t) = ε0cE2(t), in SI units. Let us assume that 

the pulses come at a repetition rate ωr. Then the resulting energy flux is 













 











 









2 ω τ /2

r p 0 in,0

1/2

p r 0

2

p

2

p ω τ ε cE 1 e

8

π

S ω dtS (t) . (29)

In the experimental work described in section 6, the relevant wavelength λp of light is in the 

range 370 to 250 nm, and the corresponding circular frequency ωp = 2πc/λ is in the range (5.1 –

7.5)x1015 1/s. Therefore, we can neglect the exponentially small term in equation 29. Equating

the flux to the power per unit area, W/As, where As is approximately the area of the sample 

surface where the light is absorbed, we obtain a relation between the electric field amplitude and 

the power:

1/2

0 r p s

1/2

in,0

ε ω τ cA

W

8

π

E





























 . (30)

The repetition rate in the experiments was 250 KHz. Assume that the incident spot area As = 

100x100 μm2, then for W = 100 μW the corresponding value of Ein,0dcv is 3.565 meV. At normal 

incidence, the ratio of fields in reflected and incident waves is (n–1)/(n+1), and for GaN the 

reflectance n = 2.2. Then we obtain that in the transmitted wave, E0 = 0.927Ein,0 and E0dcv = 

3.304 meV, and the corresponding value of the Rabi frequency in equation 27 is 5.02 THz. At 

arbitrary values of power W, we obtain the following relation between Rabi frequency and the 

power of the incident pulses (measured in μW):

  Ω 0.502 THz W/1μW 0

R   . (31)

The equation 24 for the polarization with the initial condition, pk(–∞) = 0, can be recast in the 

integral form, convenient for the discussion of the semiclassical limit:

p (t) iΩ e dτe E(t τ)1 f (t τ) f (t τ)

h

k

e

k

0

(0) iω t iΔ τ

k R

p k        



 



 . (32)
12

The semiclassical result is obtained by (1) adiabatic approximation E(t) → E(t)exp(ηt) with η → 

0

+

and (2) Markov approximation, in which we assume that the electric field and the distribution 

functions in the integrand vary slowly compared to oscillations of the exponential factor. These 

approximations eliminate (1) the influence of initial correlations and (2) the dynamic memory 

effects. Then the polarization in equation 32 is an instantaneous function of the carrier 

distribution and applied field. Using the relation 

πδ(Δ )

Δ

dτ e k

0 k

(η Δ )τ k    



  P

i

i

,

where P denotes the principal value and δ(x) is the Dirac’s delta-function, we obtain the 

semiclassical generation rate from equation 25 in the form of the Fermi’s Golden Rule,

g (t) 2πΩ E(t) 1 f (t) f δ(Δ )

e h

2 2 (0) (0)

k  R  k  k k

 . (33)

If the Markov approximation in equation 32 is applied to the carrier distribution functions and 

we retain the time dependence of the Gaussian field, we obtain the effects of the non-zero 

spectral width of the pulse:

    .

(u t /τ )

e

0

1 f (t τ ) f (t τ ) du cos Δ τ u

t /τ

g (t) 2Ω τ e

2

p

k p

h

k

e

k

2

p

2

p

2 (0)

R

(0)

k

 





   



 

(34)

For times shorter than Δkτp

2

, the semiclassical generation rate can be approximately factorized 

into the temporal and spectral pulse shapes (1):

  .

/4 2

p

τ

2

k

Δ

2

p

/τ

2

t

h

k

e

p k

2

(0)

R

(0)

k g (t) 2Ω τ 1 f (t τ) f (t τ) e e

 

      (35)

4.2 Carrier-phonon Interaction

The contributions of carrier-phonon interaction are obtained by evaluation of the commutation of 

carrier operators in equation 22 with Hc-ph in equation 20. The resulting contribution to the 

equation for the electron distribution function is given by

 





 





  

 

 

  

 



q

k q q k

h

k q k q q

h

k q q k q

e

k q k q q

e

q

c-p h

e

k

γ c b c γ c b c γ c b c γ c b c

i

1

dt

df



(36)

and similarly for fh

k and pk. The lowest order approximation, the first order contribution, is 

obtained by factorizing the expectation values of three-operator products into distribution 

functions and polarization. The resulting first-order contributions vanish because 

  0



bq bq

for the eigen-states of the phonon number operator, and, consequently, also in the averaging with 

the thermal phonons density matrix. In order to obtain the second-order contribution, we have to 

derive equations of motion for the three-operator products on the right hand side of equation 36. 
13

Again, using commutation and anti-commutation relations in the Heisenberg equation of motion 

for the operator products, we obtain

 

    

 





 







 

















    







 



     













 





  

   

k

k k k q k q

e

k k k q k q q

e

q

q

k q q k q q k q q q k q

e

k q q k q q k q q q k q q

e

q

k q k q

e e

k q k q

γ c c c c γ c d d c

i

1

γ c b b c c b b c γ c b b c c b b c

i

1

ε (k) ε (k - q) ω(q) c b c

i

1

c b c

dt

d









,

(37)

and similarly for the other terms. The second-order approximation is obtained by factorizing the 

expectation values of four-operator products into distribution functions of electrons and phonons, 

and polarization, and neglecting the two-particle correlations. Define

, , k q k q

c b c 



 

e

Sq k k q

(38)

and obtain the equation:

    

k k q

e

q

e

k q

e

k

e

q

e

q k q

e

q k

e

q

e

q ,k ,k q

e e e

q ,k ,k q

γ p p

i

1

γ f f

i

1

γ N 1 f N f

i

1

ε (k) ε (k - q) ω(q) S

i

1

S

dt

d



   

 



  



    



 





(39)

where we used 

bq bq Nq



. This equation has the form 

S(t) iωS(t ) Y(t)

dt

d

   . (40)

With the initial condition giving S(t0), it can be cast into the integral form

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(41)

We perform the adiabatic approximation by changing ω → ω + 0+and letting t0 → – ∞, and also 

eliminate memory effects in the scatterings by Markov approximation in the time integral. In 

doing this, we assume that Y(t) varies slowly as compared to the exponential factor in the 

integrand. With this we obtain 

 

 

 ω

 πδ ω π ω , (42)

where denotes principal value and 

 ω 

 

 π

 

ω

 δ ω . (43)
14

The Markov approximation here relies on the assumption of different time scales relevant for the 

interaction-induced correlations on one hand, and the dynamics of distribution functions and 

polarization on the other hand, and results in a semiclassical approach to the relaxation and 

dephasing processes. The limitations of this approximation for the carrier-phonon kinetics on a 

femtosecond scale are discussed in reference 1.

Collecting all the terms and using γe

q = – γ

h

q = γq for interaction with polar phonons, we obtain

(9)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(44)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(45)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(46)

where the internal polarization fields Fα,cph are given by

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

(47)

the carrier-phonon scattering rates are given by 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(48)

and the polarization transition matrices are given by

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

α

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(49)

The δ-function part of produces the scattering and dephasing terms, while the principal value 

part produces energy renormalization terms describing polaron corrections to the band structure.

It follows from the last two equations that in the low excitation regime, fα<< 1,
15

 

 

 

 

 

α 

 

(50)

4.3 Carrier-carrier Interaction

The contributions of carrier-carrier interaction are obtained using the Heisenberg equations of 

motion. The derivation employs the anti-commutation relations for the electron and hole 

operators, from which we also derive the following commutation relations:

ck

ck,ck  δk ,kck, ckck,ck  δk ,kck, ck d k,ck  δk ,k d k, ck d k,ck  0

 

 







 



 



  

















.

The resulting c-c contribution to the equation for electron distribution function is given by

  



 



 



   



 











  







   

k ,q

q k k k q k q k q k q k k k k q k k q k q k k q k

cc

e

k V c c c c c c c c c d d c c d d c

i

1

dt

df



, (51)

and similarly for fh

k and pk. The lowest order approximation, the first order contribution, is 

obtained by factorizing the expectation values of four-operator products into distribution 

functions and polarization. The results are the Hartree-Fock terms:











 





 



k

( )

k k

cc(1)

k

(1)

cc

h

k

(1)

cc

e

k F p F p

i

1

dt

df

dt

df cc 1



(52)

  

h

k

e

k

cc(1)

k k k

(1)

cc

k Σ p F 1 f f

i

1

dt

dp

    



,

(53)

where Σ is the self-energy due to the e-e and h-h interactions, and F is the internal field due to the 

e-h interaction (interband polarization field):

  



       

k

e h

Σ V f f k k k k k

(54)





    

k

k

cc(1) Fk Vk k p . (55)

The self-energy in equation 54 is a real quantity that renormalizes the one-particle carrier 

energies εα(k) and does not contribute to a finite lifetime. The effect of the internal field 

 

is

to renormalize the Rabi frequency (3), and it can be included in the generation rate:

     

    1

             

0 1 P P iω t cc(1) iω t ( )

k k k k k k k k k

1

g (t) g (t) g (t) M E(t)e F p M E(t)e F p

i

cc

.

(56)

The contribution due to the internal field satisfies the sum rule 

g 0

k

(1)  k 

(57)
16

and does not contribute to the generating of electron-hole pairs. It changes the distribution of 

carriers inside their respective bands, but in contrast to true scattering processes, it is a coherent 

process (8). This renormalization adds nonlinear terms to the evolution equations, which can be 

used as a mathematical model to study optical nonlinearities in semiconductors (3). The 

scattering processes appear in the second-order contributions. These are obtained from the 

Heisenberg equations of motion for the two-particle correlations:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(58)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

,

which describe deviations from the corresponding factorizations.

The resulting equations for these two-particle correlation functions contain three-particle 

correlations, which are factorized into two-particle correlations, distribution functions, and 

polarizations (9). If the two-particle correlations are further factorized into distribution functions, 

the resulting equation for the correlation function in equation 58 is given by

 

 

 δ 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 ε  ε  

 

 ε  

 ε 

 δ 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 (59)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 .

This equation is of the same form as equation 40 for carrier-phonon correlation function Se. We 

transform it into the integral equation as in equation 41 and perform adiabatic and Markov 

approximations. The result is then used in equation 51 to obtain the second-order c-c interaction 

terms in the kinetic equation for electron distribution function. Have we retained the two-particle 

correlations in equation 59, the bare Coulomb interaction Vq

(0) = e2

/(Vε0εsq

2

) in the kinetic 

equation for fk

e would become dynamically screened with the Lindhard dielectric function of 

electron gas (1, 16):

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

(60)

where 

 

 

 

  

 

  

 

 

(61)

In this work we use the static limit of equation 61, and for Vq in kinetic equations, we use 

Coulomb interaction statically screened by electrons and holes, thus obtaining the screened 
17

Coulomb interaction in equation 7 with the inverse screening length given in equation 8. The 

dynamic screening effects that would lead to carrier-plasmon scattering, are excluded in this 

approximation. With these approximations, the carrier-carrier interaction second-order terms in 

the kinetic equations are the following:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(62)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(63)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(64)

where the internal polarization fields Fα,cc(2) are given by

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(65)

the carrier-carrier transition matrices are given by 

 

α 

π

 

 

 

α α α α 

 

α

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(66)

and the polarization transition matrices are given by

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

α 

 

α

 

α

 

 

 

α 

 

 

 

(67)

4.4 Kinetic Equations to the Second-order in Carrier-phonon and Carrier-carrier 

Interactions

With the interaction terms derived in section 4.3, the equations of motion can be written as

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

(68)
18

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(69)

with the renormalized energies of carriers (Hartree-Fock terms)

 

 

 , (70)

the fields given by the sum of the applied field the and internal polarization fields

 

 

 

 

  

(71)

 

 

 

 

, (72)

the generation rate

 

 

 

 

 

 

α  α 

 , (73)

and with transition matrices 

 

and 

 

being the sums of the second-order carrierphonon and carrier-carrier interaction transition matrices. The transition matrices 

 

(α = e,

h) for the distribution functions are real quantities but are not necessarily positive. The transition 

matrix for the polarization 

 

is a complex quantity. Its real part describes scattering 

processes that contribute to the dephasing of polarization, and the imaginary part describes 

second-order contributions to the band gap renormalization. The second-order energy shifts are 

usually negligible as compared to the Hartree-Fock energy renormalization (1).

4.5 Luminescence Spectrum

In this work, we will not consider the emission of coherent photons possible in the presence of 

coherent interband polarization (8), and the luminescence spectrum will be evaluated from the 

Fermi Golden Rule. It results from evaluation of the rate of emitted photons using Markov 

approximation of the carrier-photon interaction in the luminescence to the second-order. With 

the carrier-carrier distribution functions obtained from the kinetic equations 68 and 69, and the 

momentum of emitted photons approximated by zero, the luminescence spectrum is given by 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

(74)

Thus, the luminescence spectrum is proportional to the product of electron and hole distribution 

functions multiplied by the joint density of states. The numerical solutions obtained using a 

generalized Monte Carlo simulation (8, 9) will be shown in section 7. 
19

5. Relaxation Time Approximation

A relaxation time approximation of collision terms in kinetic equations allows use of a simple 

model to study coherent effects related to optical interband transitions. In this model, different 

momentum values decouple, and one ends with effectively a two-level system whose dynamics 

can be described by evolution of a three component Bloch vector (3). Define the components as 

follows:

U (t) e p (t) e p (t) k

t

p

iω

k

t

p

iω

1k 

















 



 



U (t) i e p (t) e p (t) k

t

p

iω

k

t

p

iω

2 k

(75)

U 1 f (t) f (t) h

k

e

3k   k 

,

and define detuning by equation 26: 

  . Then from equations 23–25, and 

allowing for relaxation, the optical Bloch equations are

2k

1k

k 2k

1k

T

U

Δ U

dt

dU

  

2 k

2 k

3 k

(0)

k 1 k R

2 k

T

U

Δ U 2Ω E(t)U

dt

dU

   (76)

1 k

3 k

2 k

(0)

R

3 k

T

1 U

2Ω E(t)U

dt

dU 

  

,

with the initial conditions

U ( ) 1, U ( ) U ( ) 0 3k   1k   2k  

.

(77)

The equations without relaxation describe a rotation of vector Uk about vector Ω = [–2ΩR

(0)E(t), 

0, Δk], in which case they can be written as one vector equation: . In view of the 

discussion in section 3, we assume that the relaxation in this model is due to carrier-phonon 

interaction, and we set the population decay time T1 (―longitudinal relaxation time‖) to be given 

by the inverse of the sum of electron-phonon and hole-phonon rates:

 

 

 

  

(78)

In view of the approximation in equation 50, the polarization decay time T2 (―transverse 

relaxation time‖) is twice the population decay time, T2k = 2T1k. 
20

In the absence of relaxation, the carrier distribution function obtained from the optical Bloch 

equations will exhibit time oscillations with the Rabi frequency. If the difference between the 

pulse central frequency and the band gap is appreciatively smaller than the LO polar phonon 

frequency, one expects a significantly reduced carrier-phonon relaxation in GaN at room 

temperature, in which case the Rabi oscillations should be seen in the time-resolved 

luminescence. The luminescence evaluated in this model at room temperature is shown in figure

7 for three values of excitation energy relative to the band gap, at two different values of 

excitation power.

Figure 7. Luminescence evaluated in relaxation model at room temperature for three values of 

excitation energy relative to the band gap, at two different values of excitation power.

These results indicate a possibility of observing coherent oscillations in the time-resolved 

luminescence experiments in high quality GaN.

6. Experimental Studies of the Time Resolved Spectroscopy of UV 

Luminescence

A schematic representation of the experimental setup (7) is shown in figure 8. A 250-KHz 

regeneratively amplified Ti:Sappfire laser produces 150 fs pulses at 800 nm wavelength. Part of 

this beam is split off, acting as a gating pulse, and the other part pumps an optical parametric 

amplifier tunable from 720 to 450 nm. Output from the amplifier is again doubled in a nonlinear 

optical crystal (2Xtal) to produce pulses tunable from 360 to 225 nm. The pump pulse, 

compressed to a width of approximately 80 fs, is focused onto the sample where it photo-excites 

electron-hole pairs. The luminescence from the sample is collected using non-dispersive optics 

and focused on another nonlinear crystal (NLXtal), where it is mixed with the gating pulse to 

yield a down-converted signal at lower frequency (visible light) that is spatially separated from 
21

the other beam. The down-converted signal is passed through a spectrometer and detected with a 

photomultiplier tube in photon counting mode. The sample used in these experiments was a 1 μm 

thick homoepitaxial GaN film deposited on a GaN substrate. The arrival time of the gate pulse 

relative to the photoluminescence is used to follow the temporal evolution of UV 

photoluminescence with 350 fs resolution.

Figure 8. A schematic representation of the setup for the time-resolved 

photoluminescence experiment. A Ti:Sapphire laser produces 

150 fs, 5 mJ, 800 nm pulses. Part of the beam pumps an optical 

parametric amplifier tunable from 720 to 450 nm. An up-converted

beam with pulses tunable from 360 to 225 nm and widths of 50 to 80 fs, 

pumps energy from 3.44 to 5.5 eV, suitable for studying nitride materials,

generates electron-hole pairs in a GaN sample.

The experiments were performed at two values of pump pulse power, 0.66 mW and 2 mW, 

generating about 8 and 2.5 electron-hole pairs, respectively. In the experiments,

the luminescence was measured at a fixed energy, thus allowing us to watch the carrier 

distribution pass through a spectral window, as shown in figure 9.
22

Figure 9. The upper part illustrates the energy position of 2 mW pump pulse, at 308 nm 

wavelength, and four different values of emission energy. The band edge exciton 

luminescence lineshape is also shown. The lower part shows the time 

dependence of the measured photoluminescence at those values of emission 

energy, set near the band edge (black), ħωLO (red), 2 ħωLO (green), and 3ħωLO

(blue), where ħωLO referes to the energy of a polar longitudinal phonon, 91.2 meV. 

Room temperature time-resolved photoluminescence obtained with a 308 nm pump (about 

75 meV above the conduction band edge) is also shown in figure 10 for two values of the 

excitation power, 0.66 mW and 2 mW. 

Figure 10. Time evolution of photo-luminescence from GaN at different wavelengths. The pump wavelength 

is 308 nm, at two values of the pump power, 0.66 mW (left panel) and 2 mW (right panel). 
23

The data are indicative of the rapid formation of a non-thermal distribution associated with the 

interplay of carrier-carrier scattering (electron-electron and hole-hole) and electron-LO phonon 

scattering during carrier injection. After injection, a measurable rise time to peak emission is 

present and is a function of excitation energy, carrier density, and emission energy. Since the 

time-resolved signal at a given wavelength is proportional to the product of the electron and hole 

distribution functions at a given momentum, these plots provide a measure of the evolution of the 

carrier distributions as they cool down to the band edge and into possible deeper band tail states.

Carrier density-dependent data, shown in figure 11, shows the effects of screening in evolution 

of electron-hole distribution. For an initial excess energy of 0.75 eV (308 nm excitation pulse), a 

shift of the 355.6 nm (1LO phonon energy above the conduction band edge) emission peak from 

0.9 ps to 2.2 ps is seen for a change in density from 81018 to 2.51019 cm–3(660 μW to 2 mW 

pump). The fact that the emission peak is reached later at this wavelength at higher carrier 

density implies that the electrons relax more slowly due to more efficient screening of the 

electron-LO phonon interaction.

Figure 11. Pump power dependence of 355.6 nm emission 

showing an increase in rise time at higher density 

due to screening of the electron-LO phonon 

interaction.

These experiments allowed us to study initial thermalization and hot carrier dynamics in photoexcited GaN. Screening effects were observed as a function of excitation intensity, and a 

dependence on the excitation photon energy is seen in the dynamics of the photo-excited carrier 

distributions.
24

7. Monte Carlo Simulation of Kinetic Equations

The numerical method we used in the simulation is the Monte Carlo method generalized by 

Kuhn and Rossi to account for the effects of the interband polarization (8). The various 

contributions to the carrier dynamics in equations 68 and 69 can be separated into two parts, the 

coherent part and dephasing part. Let 

 

be a kinetic variable, being fk

e,h if ν = e,h or pk if ν = p. 

The kinetic equations can be schematically written as 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(79)

with

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(80)

where 

 

is a functional of kinetic variables, and 

 

is the scattering rate associated with 

kinetic variable 

 

for a transition k → k' induced by the jth interaction mechanism. These rates 

are real positive quantities, unlike the full transition matrices 

 

.

The coherent part describes the generation of carriers and polarization, which are highly 

correlated due to the external field. This part is evaluated by a direct numerical integration. 

Under the approximations used in the derivation of kinetic equations in this work, the incoherent 

part has basically the same form as used in traditional Monte Carlo simulation. The only 

difference is that the polarization is a complex quantity. 

The total time is divided into time steps, Δt, and the system is initialized in vacuum state at t0. In 

this state, the distribution functions and the polarization are zero. For each step, we compute the 

coherent part by the direct integration. In the Monte Carlo ―sampling‖ of incoherent 

contributions for each kinetic variable 

 

, we use an ensemble of N particles generated 

randomly according to the distribution function 

 

 . For the polarization, a phase is attached 

according to the phase of pk. The traditional Monte Carlo simulation is performed according to 

the scattering rates 

 

. A more detailed description can be found in reference 9. The 

conduction band nonparabolicity and static screening were included in the calculations. Once the 

distribution functions are obtained, the luminescence is evaluated from equation 74. The results 

in figure 12 show that the rise of the experimentally observed luminescence and the associated 

rise-times are in reasonable agreement with experimental results in section 6, confirming that the 
25

carrier-polar optical phonon interaction is the dominant scattering mechanism in the 

subpicosecond evolution of photo-excited carriers.

Figure 12. Theoretical luminescence from photo-excited GaN obtained by Monte Carlo simulation of kinetics 

equations. Luminescence is shown as function of time at four different energies, at the band edge 

and at one, two, and three times LO-phonon energy above the band gap.

8. Conclusions

We have applied the SBE formalism to study the subpicosecond dynamics of photo-excited 

carriers in GaN. The kinetics equations were derived using a two-band model and taking into 

account the coherent interaction of semiconductor with the short laser pulse. Various scattering 

terms due to interaction of carriers with polar optical phonons and carrier-carrier interaction were 

taken into account. Effects of the conduction band nonparabolicity and static screening were 

included in our theory. Prior to the evaluation of kinetics, we calculated scattering rates and 
26

found that the relaxation of carriers in bulk GaN is dominated by electron-polar phonon 

scattering, with rates much higher than the corresponding rates in GaAs, for example. We also 

found that the plasmon emission by energetic electrons can be a substantial contributing 

mechanism to the hot electron relaxation on the subpicosecond scale, though not nearly as 

important as carrier-optical phonon scattering. Further investigation of possible plasmon effects 

may be included in the future theoretical work on hot carrier dynamics in GaN. This will involve 

using dynamic carrier screening rather than the static approximation. We find reasonable 

agreement with the experimental results on the time-resolved photoluminescence rise-time 

dependence on excitation energy and carrier density, thus confirming the dominant role of polar 

optical phonons in the subpicosecond dynamics, and the effects of screening. The results of the 

relaxation model suggest a possibility of observing coherent polarization effects, the Rabi 

oscillations in luminescence, possibly using different wide-band-gap polar material samples at 

lower pump power. An extension of the experiments to lower temperatures would also be of 

interest to further clarify the role of polar phonons in subpicosecond hot electron dynamics.
27

9. References

1. Rossi, F.; Kuhn, T. Rev. Mod. Phys. 2002, 74, 895.

2. Jacoboni, L.; Lugli, P. The Monte Carlo Method for Semiconductor Device Simulation;

Springer-Verlag, New York, 1989.

3. Haug, H; Koch, S. W. Quantum Theory of the Optical and Electronic Properties of 

Semiconductors; 3d edition 1994, World Scientific.

4. Ridley, B. K. Quantum Processes in Semiconductors; 4th edition 1999, Clarendon Press, 

Oxford.

5. Conwell, E. M.; Vassell, M. O. Phys. Rev 1968, 166, 797.

6. Wang, Y.; Bellotti, E.; Wraback, M.; Rudin S. Proceedings of 27th Int. Conf. on the Physics 

of Semiconductors, ed. J. Menendez and C. G. Van de Walle, AIP 2005, 239.

7. Garrett, G. A.; Rudin, S.; Sampath, A. V.; Collins, C. J.; Shen, H.; Wraback, M.

Proceedings of 27th Int. Conf. on the Physics of Semiconductors, ed. J. Menendez and C. G. 

Van de Walle, AIP 2005, 243.

8. Kuhn, T.; Rossi, F. Phys. Rev. B 1992, 46, 7496.

9. Haas, S.; Rossi, F.; Kuhn, T. Phys. Rev. B 1996, 53, 12855.

10. Conwell, E. M.; Vassell, M. O. Phys. Rev 1968, 166, 797.

11. Goano, M.; Bellotti, E.; Ghillino E.; Ghione G.; Brennan K. F. J. Appl. Phys. 2000, 88, 

6467.

12. Osman, M. A.; Ferry, D. K. Phys. Rev. B 1987, 36, 6018.

13. Mahan G. D. in Polarons in Ionic Crystals and Polar Semiconductors, edited by J. T. 

Devreese 1972 (North-Holland, Amsterdam), p. 553.

14. Diff, K.; Brennan, K. F. J. Appl Phys. 1991, 69, 3097. 

15. Madelung O. Introduction to Solid-Stare Theory; Springer, Heidelberg, 1978.

16. Wyld, H. W.; Fried, B. D. Ann. Phys. (N. Y.) 1963, 23, 374. 
28

List of Acronyms and Abbreviations

2Xtal nonlinear optical crystal

AlGaN aluminum gallium nitride

Fs femtosecond

GaAs gallium arsenide

GaN gallium nitride

LO longitudinal optical

NLXtal nonlinear crystal

RPA Random Phase Approximation

SBE Semiconductor Bloch Equation

TRPL time-resolved photoluminescence

UV ultraviolet
29

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30

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