Coulomb crystal and quantum melting in electron-hole plasmas of semiconductors under high pressure

A phase diagram for variable hole to electron mass ratio of two-component Coulomb crystals is presented as result of the first-principle computer simulations. A critical mass ratio for the existence of quantum Coulomb crystals is of the order of 80 in three dimensions. At very low temperature the electron-hole system with decreasing hole mass can form antiferromagnetic crystal structure composed by two perfect hole lattices each consisting of the holes with the same spin projections. (C) 2007 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.