Combined effects of screening and band gap renormalization on the energy of optical transitions in ZnO and GaN

The energy positions of the optical transitions in both GaN and ZnO were investigated when the samples were excited simultaneously with a HeCd laser and an Ar+ ion laser. The increased number of free electrons excited by the Ar+ ion laser will effectively screen both the free exciton and bound exciton transitions, resulting in a blueshift. The increased number of free electrons also produces many-body effects, which lead to a reduction of the band gap energy and thus a redshift. The resultant of screening and renormalization results in a redshift of the optical transitions in ZnO but a nearly vanishing shift in GaN.