The mechanisms of electronic excitation of rare earth impurities in semiconductors

Impact and Auger excitation of threefold ionized rare earth ions by carriers are calculated for silicon and III-V semiconductors. The interaction between strongly localized f-electrons and local vibrations, which makes it possible to achieve energy balance in Auger processes, has been taken into account. It is shown that the probability of Auger excitation increases if there are additional localized electron states in the forbidden gap, which correspond to defects containing rare earth ions.