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Impurity centres in high purity silicon with ionization energies 38.32 and 40.09meV are observed by photothermal ionization spectroscopy measurements. Their typical shallow donor characteristics are approved by good agreement with theoretic evaluation under varying magnetic fields. The 2p0 state lifetime of one donor centres are more than 3 times longer than that of phosphorus in the same silicon sample. Compared to phosphorus which has been already successfully exploited to produce silicon-based THz radiations, this shallow donor centre has a pronounced enhancement on lifetime and quality factor of population inversion level. Hence, silicon with this donor centre would be a potential excellent candidate to develop improved silicon-based THz sources.

The optimum photo-thermal ionization range near liquid helium temperature for the shallow impurities in n type high purity silicon single crystal was determined experimentally. At temperature within this range, the high resolution photo-thermal ionization spectra (PTIS) of this sample were measured. Positive PTIS responses from the majority residual impurity phosphor (P) and compensating impurity boron (B) were observed by simultaneously irradiating the sample with far infrared and band-edge light. Under action of applied external magnetic fields, the positive response from compensating impurity B changes to negative response. The posibility of these phenomena being the result of temperature effect was excluded, which revealed the deficiency of Darken model and supported the model of rapid recombination of minority carriers for PTIS response of compensating impurity in elemental semiconductors.

The results of high sensitivity photo-thermal ionization spectroscoic (PTIS) investigation of shallow acceptors in high purity p-type germanium sample with room temperature resistivity of about 50Ω·cm, at temperature above liquid helium by Fourier transform spectrometer and associated magneto-optical measurement systems, are reported. The optimum photo-thermal ionization temperature range for the shallow impurities in high purity germanium is determined experimentally. At temperatures within this range, the PTIS spectra of this sample were measured. Boron and aluminum are found to be the main shallow acceptors in the sample. The causes of line splits of spectra, rapid recombination of compensating impurity and random strain, are analyzed and discussed.