Bound photoinduced giant spin polaron in EuTe

Previously, we showed that at low temperatures and very low excitation powers, EuTe displays band-edge photoluminescence with a well-resolved phonon structure, the so-called MX0 band, which is associated with the recombination of giant spin polarons (SPs) of magnetic moments of several hundred Bohr magnetons. Here, we investigate the MX0 band both experimentally and by Monte Carlo simulations. Results indicate that the SPs are bound to defects, with a localization energy of 0.29 eV. The density of defects harboring the SPs is estimated to be 4.3×1015 cm−3.