Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 February 2011
Recent absorption and photoconductivity studies of deep transition-metal impurities in silicon are discussed, with emphasis on optical transitions from the deep ground state to shallow Coulomb excited states. The P3/2 line spectra of the deep Au and Pt acceptors closely resemble those of group II acceptors in silicon, whereas the P1/2 lines show resonance effects due to interaction with the valence band continuum. Behavior under uniaxial stress is compatible with D2d or C 2y point-group symmetry for the Au and Pt acceptors. A line spectrum in g-dopes Si can be attributed to excitations to shallow donor states since the phononassisted Fano resonances involve characteristic inter-valley phonons. Both the Ag donor spectrum and the corresponding Au spectrum are dominated by excited s-state transitions. Thus, the traditional fingerprint of a donor in silicon, i.e. the effective-mass like p-state series, is missing or at best observed weakly