No abstract

We demonstrate how to overcome serious problems in understanding and classification of vibration spectra in semiconductor alloys, following from traditional use of the virtual crystal approximation (VCA). We show that such different systems as InGaAs (1-bond→1-mode behavior), InGaP (modified 2-mode) and ZnTeSe (2-bond→1-mode) obey in fact the same phonon mode behavior -hence probably a universal one -of a percolation-type (1-bond→2-mode). The change of paradigm from the 'VCA insight' (an averaged microscopic one) to the 'percolation insight' (a mesoscopic one) offers a promising link towards the understanding of alloy disorder. The discussion is supported by ab initio simulation of the phonon density of states at the zone-center of representative supercells at intermediary composition (ZnTeSe) and at the impurity-dilute limits (all systems). In particular, we propose a simple ab initio 'protocol' to estimate the basic input parameters of our semi-empirical 'percolation' model for the calculation of the 1-bond→2-mode vibration spectra of zincblende alloys. With this, the model turns self-sufficient.

No abstract

There is an evident misprint in the labeling of the Raman features in the first sentence of the first paragraph in the first column of page 165206-8. The correct sentence is: "Also, we identify the minor optical band detected by Lucovsky et al. in their pioneer IR measurements as the LO int. -TO Ga-P In band." This misprint does not change any of the conclusions of the paper.

We demonstrate how to overcome serious problems in understanding and classification of vibration spectra in semiconductor alloys, following from traditional use of the virtual crystal approximation (VCA). We show that such different systems as InGaAs (1-bond→1-mode behavior), InGaP (modified 2-mode) and ZnTeSe (2-bond→1-mode) obey in fact the same phonon mode behavior -hence probably a universal one -of a percolation-type (1-bond→2-mode). The change of paradigm from the 'VCA insight' (an averaged microscopic one) to the 'percolation insight' (a mesoscopic one) offers a promising link towards the understanding of alloy disorder. The discussion is supported by ab initio simulation of the phonon density of states at the zone-center of representative supercells at intermediary composition (ZnTeSe) and at the impurity-dilute limits (all systems). In particular, we propose a simple ab initio 'protocol' to estimate the basic input parameters of our semi-empirical 'percolation' model for the calculation of the 1-bond→2-mode vibration spectra of zincblende alloys. With this, the model turns self-sufficient.