Hall measurements under weak persistent photoexcitation in Si-doped AlxGa1-xAs
The low-temperature Hall mobility of photoexcited electrons has been measured in Si-doped MBE AlGaAs samples. Different fractions of occupied DX centres were obtained by selecting different free-electron densities: possible systematic errors in Hall measurements due to the method of photoexcitation are demonstrated and critically analysed. Using suitable values for the acceptor density and the alloy scattering potential a fair fitting of the experimental data was achieved within both negative-U and positive-U models for the DX centre. Discrepancies between calculated and experimental mobility versus temperature curves are observed, which are more evident the lower the free-electron densities. They are tentatively explained as being due to electrons in an impurity band originated by the shallow effective-mass state related to the Gamma minimum of the conduction band.