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 MX 0 band, which is associated with the recombination of giant spin polarons (SPs) of magnetic moments of several hundred Bohr magnetons. Here, we investigate the MX 0 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 × 10 15 cm − 3.