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    Radiative Recombination in Semiconductors

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    rvrbang
    This document discusses radiative recombination in semiconductors. It defines radiative recombination as the process where an electron falls from the conduction band into a hole in the valence band, releasing a photon. It describes the principle of detailed balance, which states that microscopic processes and their inverse processes are in equilibrium at the same temperature. The document also notes that studies of radiation spectra provided information about band structure, impurity energy levels, and crystal vibrations. It shows that radiative recombination is more probable in semiconductors with narrower bandgaps.

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    Radiative Recombination in Semiconductors

    Uploaded by

    rvrbang
    122 views12 pages
    This document discusses radiative recombination in semiconductors. It defines radiative recombination as the process where an electron falls from the conduction band into a hole in the valence band, releasing a photon. It describes the principle of detailed balance, which states that microscopic processes and their inverse processes are in equilibrium at the same temperature. The document also notes that studies of radiation spectra provided information about band structure, impurity energy levels, and crystal vibrations. It shows that radiative recombination is more probable in semiconductors with narrower bandgaps.

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    Basics of radiative recombination

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    This document discusses radiative recombination in semiconductors. It defines radiative recombination as the process where an electron falls from the conduction band into a hole in the valence band, releasing a photon. It describes the principle of detailed balance, which states that microscopic processes and their inverse processes are in equilibrium at the same temperature. The document also notes that studies of radiation spectra provided information about band structure, impurity energy levels, and crystal vibrations. It shows that radiative recombination is more probable in semiconductors with narrower bandgaps.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    122 views12 pages

    Radiative Recombination in Semiconductors

    Uploaded by

    rvrbang
    This document discusses radiative recombination in semiconductors. It defines radiative recombination as the process where an electron falls from the conduction band into a hole in the valence band, releasing a photon. It describes the principle of detailed balance, which states that microscopic processes and their inverse processes are in equilibrium at the same temperature. The document also notes that studies of radiation spectra provided information about band structure, impurity energy levels, and crystal vibrations. It shows that radiative recombination is more probable in semiconductors with narrower bandgaps.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 12

    Radiative

    Recombination in
    Semiconductors
    Study of Radiation spectra and its applications
    1
    Contents
    Recombination Definition
    Types of Recombination
    Radiative Recombination
    Principle of Detailed Balance
    Impurity radiative transitions
    Experimental setup
    References
    2
    What is Recombination?
    The process in which when an electron falls from the
    conduction band into a hole in the valence band, they
    annihilate each other with the release of photons/phonons-
    Electroluminescence.
    Reverse process of e-h pair generation
    Two kinds of recombination
    Radiative Recombination (with the release of photon)
    Non-Radiative Recombination (with phonons/lattice vibration)



    3
    Radiative Recombination
    Optical processes associated with radiative transitions
    Spontaneous emission
    Absorption or Gain
    Stimulated emission
    Non-Radiative Recombination
    Processes associated with non-radiative transitions
    Auger Recombination
    Surface Recombination
    Recombination at defects
    4
    Radiative Recombination
    The overall recombination rate in germanium and silicon is
    governed by non-radiative transitions.
    Investigations of the spectra of recombination radiation, first
    detected by O. V. Losev in silicon carbide yielded information-
    band structure
    energy levels of impurities and defects
    crystal lattice vibrations of germanium, silicon, and other
    semiconductors
    By the application of the principle of detailed balance, the
    spectral distribution of the rate of photon generation for the
    photon-radiative recombination of electrons and holes in
    germanium was determined[2]

    5
    Principle of Detailed Balance[3]
    The Law of Entire Equilibrium [4] or The Principle of
    Microscopic Reversibility [5] or The Hypothesis of the
    Unit Mechanism [6] or The Principle of Detailed
    Balancing [7]
    A sample is said to be in thermodynamic equilibrium when,
    the temperature of the sample is the same as that of its
    environment
    there is no change of temperature in time
    there are no external forces acting on the sample, for instance
    an applied voltage or excess illumination from a light source.
    If a sample is in thermal equilibrium, then all microscopic
    processes in the sample are exactly compensated by their
    respective inverse process.
    6
    Conclusions from the study of
    radiation spectra
    Based on the Theory of Detailed Balancing, interband
    radiative recombination should be more likely in
    semiconductors with a narrow forbidden band, than in
    germanium or silicon[2]
    In some cases, this type of recombination determines the
    overall lifetime of minority carriers.
    7
    Radiative recombination lifetimes[8]
    This table shows that for substances with narrow forbidden
    band, the max. observed lifetimes are much lower => higher
    probability of radiative recombination
    8
    Impurity radiative transitions
    Electron transitions in a semiconductor, accompanied by photon
    emission: (a) intrinsic transitions; (b) impurity transitions.
    9
    Excitation and Investigation of
    Recombination spectra
    Experimental methods to study recombination radiation
    spectra
    by excitation with short wavelengths (more convenient
    method to study intrinsic recombination)
    by the injection of carriers by passing a current through a p-n
    junction in the forward direction
    10
    Experimental set up
    11
    References
    [1]V. S. Vavilov, Effects of radiation on Semiconductors, Springer
    Science+Business Media, LLC,1965,Ch.4,pp. 112-119
    [2]W. Van Roosbroeck and W. Shockley, Photon Radiative
    recombination of electrons and holes in Germanium, Phys. Rev. 94,
    6,pp. 1558-1560,Jun.,1954)
    [3] Thomas Kirchartz, Generalized detailed balance theory of solar
    cells
    [4] G. N. Lewis, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 11, 179 (1925).
    [5] R. C. Tolman, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 11, 436 (1925).
    [6] O. E. Richardson, Proc. Roy. Soc. Lon. 36, 392 (1924).
    [7] E. O. Lawrence, Phys. Rev. 27, 555 (1926).
    [8] E. Burstein and P. H. Egli, "Physics of semiconductors" (a
    review), in collection: Physics of Semiconductors [Russian
    translation], 1957.

    12

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