Magneto-Optical Study of Cu₂O

Abstract

A high resolution magneto-optical study is made on Cu₂O in the yellow exciton (n≥3) and oscillatory region of the spectrum at magnetic fields up to 160 kOe. The shift and splitting of each exciton line observed in the presence of the field are explained primarily in terms of diamagnetic effects on the odd parity levels of a free hydrogen atom. The degeneracy of the p and f levels with same n is lifted in the absence of the field. The magneto-oscillatory spectrum consists of broad main lines accompanied with sharp lines on the higher energy side, which arise from the relative motion within an electron-hole pair. The reduced effective mass for this motion is obtained from the magneto-oscillatory spectrum as 0.38 m. The effective g value for the diamagnetic effect is 0.73 in the exciton as well as in the oscillatory region.