High-Frequency Modulated Photoluminescence: a simulation study of cases describing the signature of carrier recombination and trap centers

Abstract

A new setup for recording time dependent photoluminescence signal in both transient and modulated regime was previously assembled. The modulated photoluminescence experiment was achieved in a high frequency domain (up to 10 MHz) while keeping high sensitivity. The methods can thus be applied both to silicon and thin film absorbers. A simulation program was developed for the reconstruction of the experimental data in both time resolved and frequency resolved regimes. In this work we focus on the simulation part and discuss the ability of our setup to identify the carrier recombination paths in thin film solar cells. First results confirm that it should be possible to discriminate between different mechanisms such as radiative, non-radiative recombination and trapping.

Analytical model of the modulated photoluminescence in semiconductor materials

“…We can note that Mickevicius et al have also observe V-shapes on GaN at low-temperature. [14] In the second one [15], the authors have used simulations to show the impact of the illumination power on the phase diagram, and so the usefulness of doing the characterization at several powers in order to detect specific signatures of defects. Particularly, it offers promising results about detecting shallow traps compared to more well-established techniques such as TRPL.…”