skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Non-radiative carrier recombination enhanced by two-level process: A first-principles study

Abstract

Non-radiative recombination plays an important role in the performance of optoelectronic semiconductor devices such as solar cells and light-emitting diodes. Most textbook examples assume that the recombination process occurs through a single defect level, where one electron and one hole are captured and recombined. Based on this simple picture, conventional wisdom is that only defect levels near the center of the bandgap can be effective recombination centers. Here, we present a new two-level recombination mechanism: first, one type of carrier is captured through a defect level forming a metastable state; then the local defect configuration rapidly changes to a stable state, where the other type of carrier is captured and recombined through another defect level. This novel mechanism is applied to the recombination center in CdTe. We show that this two-level process can significantly increase the recombination rate (by three orders of magnitude) in agreement with experiments. We expect that this two-level recombination process can exist in a wide range of semiconductors, so its effect should be carefully examined in characterizing optoelectronic materials.

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4]
  1. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
  2. Chinese Academy of Science, Suzhou (China)
  3. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  4. Beijing Computational Science Research Center, Beijing (China)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office
OSTI Identifier:
1239645
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1379095
Report Number(s):
NREL/JA-5K00-65022
Journal ID: ISSN 2045-2322
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC36-08GO28308; AC02-05CH11231
Resource Type:
Journal Article: Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Scientific Reports
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 6; Related Information: Scientific Reports; Journal ID: ISSN 2045-2322
Publisher:
Nature Publishing Group
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
14 SOLAR ENERGY; 71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS; two-level recombination; theory; CdTe

Citation Formats

Yang, Ji -Hui, Shi, Lin, Wang, Lin -Wang, and Wei, Su -Huai. Non-radiative carrier recombination enhanced by two-level process: A first-principles study. United States: N. p., 2016. Web. doi:10.1038/srep21712.
Yang, Ji -Hui, Shi, Lin, Wang, Lin -Wang, & Wei, Su -Huai. Non-radiative carrier recombination enhanced by two-level process: A first-principles study. United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep21712
Yang, Ji -Hui, Shi, Lin, Wang, Lin -Wang, and Wei, Su -Huai. 2016. "Non-radiative carrier recombination enhanced by two-level process: A first-principles study". United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep21712. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1239645.
@article{osti_1239645,
title = {Non-radiative carrier recombination enhanced by two-level process: A first-principles study},
author = {Yang, Ji -Hui and Shi, Lin and Wang, Lin -Wang and Wei, Su -Huai},
abstractNote = {Non-radiative recombination plays an important role in the performance of optoelectronic semiconductor devices such as solar cells and light-emitting diodes. Most textbook examples assume that the recombination process occurs through a single defect level, where one electron and one hole are captured and recombined. Based on this simple picture, conventional wisdom is that only defect levels near the center of the bandgap can be effective recombination centers. Here, we present a new two-level recombination mechanism: first, one type of carrier is captured through a defect level forming a metastable state; then the local defect configuration rapidly changes to a stable state, where the other type of carrier is captured and recombined through another defect level. This novel mechanism is applied to the recombination center in CdTe. We show that this two-level process can significantly increase the recombination rate (by three orders of magnitude) in agreement with experiments. We expect that this two-level recombination process can exist in a wide range of semiconductors, so its effect should be carefully examined in characterizing optoelectronic materials.},
doi = {10.1038/srep21712},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1239645}, journal = {Scientific Reports},
issn = {2045-2322},
number = ,
volume = 6,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Feb 16 00:00:00 EST 2016},
month = {Tue Feb 16 00:00:00 EST 2016}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record

Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 59 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Save / Share:

Works referenced in this record:

Generalized Gradient Approximation Made Simple
journal, October 1996


Hybrid functionals based on a screened Coulomb potential
journal, May 2003


Efficiency of ab-initio total energy calculations for metals and semiconductors using a plane-wave basis set
journal, July 1996


Non-radiative transitions in semiconductors
journal, December 1981


Efficient iterative schemes for ab initio total-energy calculations using a plane-wave basis set
journal, October 1996


From ultrasoft pseudopotentials to the projector augmented-wave method
journal, January 1999


Tunable and abrupt thermal quenching of photoluminescence in high-resistivity Zn-doped GaN
journal, August 2011


Inhomogeneous Electron Gas
journal, November 1964


Overcoming the doping bottleneck in semiconductors
journal, August 2004


Minority-Carrier Lifetime and Surface Recombination Velocity in Single-Crystal CdTe
journal, January 2015


First-principles theory of nonradiative carrier capture via multiphonon emission
journal, August 2014


Reversible work transition state theory: application to dissociative adsorption of hydrogen
journal, February 1995


Luminescence decay in highly excited GaN grown by hydride vapor-phase epitaxy
journal, July 2003


Nonradiative capture and recombination by multiphonon emission in GaAs and GaP
journal, January 1977


Superlinear increase of photoluminescence with excitation intensity in Zn-doped GaN
journal, August 2013


Frequency factors and isotope effects in solid state rate processes
journal, January 1957


First-principles multiple-barrier diffusion theory: The case study of interstitial diffusion in CdTe
journal, February 2015


Electron-Hole Recombination in Germanium
journal, July 1952


Tuning the Fermi level beyond the equilibrium doping limit through quenching: The case of CdTe
journal, December 2014


Self-Consistent Equations Including Exchange and Correlation Effects
journal, November 1965


Inhomogeneous Electron Gas
journal, March 1973


Non-Radiative Transitions in Semiconductors
journal, January 1970


High-resolution X-ray luminescence extension imaging
journal, February 2021


The physics of solar cells
journal, January 1979


Luminescence decay in highly excited GaN grown by hydride vapor-phase epitaxy
journal, July 2003


Statistics of the Recombinations of Holes and Electrons
journal, September 1952


Dependence of the Minority-Carrier Lifetime on the Stoichiometry of CdTe Using Time-Resolved Photoluminescence and First-Principles Calculations
journal, August 2013


First-principles theory of nonradiative carrier capture via multiphonon emission
text, January 2014


Works referencing / citing this record:

Radiative Efficiency and Charge‐Carrier Lifetimes and Diffusion Length in Polycrystalline CdSeTe Heterostructures
journal, December 2019


Microscopic insight into non-radiative decay in perovskite semiconductors from temperature-dependent luminescence blinking
journal, April 2019


Point defect engineering in thin-film solar cells
journal, June 2018


Self-compensation in chlorine-doped CdTe
journal, June 2019


Defect interactions and the role of complexes in the CdTe solar cell absorber
journal, January 2017


Excitation-dependent carrier lifetime and diffusion length in bulk CdTe determined by time-resolved optical pump-probe techniques
journal, January 2018


Review on first-principles study of defect properties of CdTe as a solar cell absorber
journal, July 2016


Enhancement of photovoltaic efficiency in CdSe x Te 1− x (where 0 ⩽ x ⩽ 1): insights from density functional theory
journal, December 2019


Carrier recombination mechanism at defects in wide band gap two-dimensional materials from first principles
journal, August 2019


Overcoming nanoscale friction barriers in transition metal dichalcogenides
journal, August 2017


Radiative Efficiency and Charge‐Carrier Lifetimes and Diffusion Length in Polycrystalline CdSeTe Heterostructures
journal, January 2020


Carrier-induced transient defect mechanism for non-radiative recombination in InGaN light-emitting devices
journal, April 2016