Mott distortion of the electron-hole fluid phase diagram

Spectroscopic measurements of the electron-hole fluid in Ge indicate that the liquid-gas phase diagram is distroted from that of simple fluids. This Mott distortion appears as a broadening of the top of the phase diagram with gas densities at least a factor of 3 lower than expected in the region near the Mott density. The precise shape of the phase boundary in the high-density gas remains uncertain because of inadequacies in our theoretical and experimental understanding of screening effects at finite temperatures. However, no first-order Mott transition separate from the liquid-gas transition is found to occur. © 1978 The American Physical Society.