The Meyer – Neldel rule in the processes of thermal emission and hole capture in Ge/Si quantum dots

The hole thermal-emission rates and the cross sections for hole capture to the bound states in Ge quantum dots in Si are determined by admittance spectroscopy. The capture cross sections and the activation energies for emission rate are found to be related to each other by the Meyer – Neldel rule with a characteristic energy of $27\pm3$ meV, which does not depend on the quantum-dot size. It is established that the capture cross section changes with temperature following the activation law. The experimental data are evidence of a unified multiphonon mechanism for the activation processes of hole transitions from the Ge quantum dots to the Si valence band and hole capture back into the quantum dots.