A numerical method for the analysis of nonlinear carrier diffusion in cylindrical semiconductor optoelectronic devices

Abstract

A numerical method to simulate radial distribution of carrier concentration in cylindrical semiconductor optoelectronic devices is presented. Method is based on the collocation principle and employs sinusoidal functions as the basis. The two approaches, evolutionary as well as iterative are presented for solving the governing differential equations. Coordinate transformation is shown to be extremely advantageous for enhancing the computational efficiency. To illustrate the versatility of the method, several examples where the geometry demands different sets of boundary conditions are included. The application of this technique for analyzing carrier concentration profiles in cylindrical optoelectronic devices, for the first time, has demonstrated its multi-utility in addition to the established ability in solving electromagnetic wave equation.