Extracting Electron Densities in N-Type GaAs From Raman Spectra: Theory

In this paper, we present the theory for calculating Raman line shapes as functions of the Fermi energy and finite temperatures in zinc blende, n-type GaAs for donor densities between 10(16) cm(−3) and 10(19) cm(−3). Compared to other theories, this theory is unique in two respects: 1) the many-body effects are treated self-consistently and 2) the theory is valid at room temperature for arbitrary values of the ratio R = (Q(2)/α), where Q is the magnitude of the normalized wave vector and α is the normalized frequency used in the Raman measurements. These calculations solve the charge neutrality equation self-consistently for a two-band model of GaAs at 300 K that includes the effects of high carrier concentrations and dopant densities on the perturbed densities of states used to calculate the Fermi energy as a function of temperature. The results are then applied to obtain the carrier concentrations from Fermi energies in the context of line shapes in Raman spectra due to the coupling between longitudinal optical phonons and plasmons. Raman measurements have been proposed as a non-destructive method for wafer acceptance tests of carrier density in semiconductor epilayers. The interpretation of Raman spectra to determine the majority electron density in n-type semiconductors requires an interdisciplinary effort involving experiments, theory, and computer-based simulations and visualizations of the theoretical calculations.