Utility of Shockley–Read–Hall analysis to extract defect properties from semiconductor minority carrier lifetime data

Abstract

The semiconductor minority carrier lifetime contains information about several important material properties, including Shockley–Read–Hall defect levels/concentrations and radiative/Auger recombination rates, and the complex relationships between these parameters produce a non-trivial temperature-dependence of the measured lifetime. It is tempting to fit temperature-dependent lifetime data to extract the properties of the Shockley–Read–Hall recombination centers; however, without a priori knowledge of the distribution of the Shockley–Read–Hall states across the bandgap, this fit problem is under-constrained in most circumstances. Shockley–Read–Hall lifetime data are not well-suited for the extraction of Shockley–Read–Hall defect levels but can be used effectively to extract minority carrier recombination lifetimes. The minority carrier recombination lifetime is observed at temperatures below 100 K in a Si-doped n-type InGaAs/InAsSb superlattice, and deviation from its expected temperature-dependence indicates that the capture cross section of the defect associated with Si-doping has an activation energy of 1.5 meV or a characteristic temperature of 17 K. This lower temperature regime is also preferrable for the analysis of the physics of defect introduction with displacement-damage-generating particle irradiation.

Establishment of Justified Parameter Optimization Sequence for obtaining Maximum Solar Cell Efficiency

“…Here, n denotes N D , p denotes N A , and E intrinsic represents intrinsic energy level. Other relation in terms of capture coefficients of holes and electrons (C p and C n ) suggests R SRH is a function of defect location (Σ T ) according to equation (8) [46,50,51].…”

Theoretical analysis of the electrical characteristics of lead‐free formamidinium tin iodide solar cell

“…Recombination processes can be divided into numerous groups as a result of the variations in mechanisms. However, Auger, Shockley-Read-Hall (SRH), and radiative mechanisms are often the most common in recombination processes [90,91]. A photon is emitted in the bandgap zone as a result of the radiation-induced recombination of the hole from the valence band with the electron from the conduction band.…”