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Title: Localization landscape theory of disorder in semiconductors. II. Urbach tails of disordered quantum well layers

Abstract

Urbach tails in semiconductors are often associated to effects of compositional disorder. The Urbach tail observed in InGaN alloy quantum wells of solar cells and LEDs by biased photocurrent spectroscopy is shown to be characteristic of the ternary alloy disorder. The broadening of the absorption edge observed for quantum wells emitting from violet to green (indium content ranging from 0% to 28%) corresponds to a typical Urbach energy of 20 meV. A three-dimensional absorption model is developed based on a recent theory of disorder-induced localization which provides the effective potential seen by the localized carriers without having to resort to the solution of the Schrödinger equation in a disordered potential. This model incorporating compositional disorder accounts well for the experimental broadening of the Urbach tail of the absorption edge. For energies below the Urbach tail of the InGaN quantum wells, type-II well-to-barrier transitions are observed and modeled. This contribution to the below-band-gap absorption is particularly efficient in near-ultraviolet emitting quantum wells.When reverse biasing the device, the well-to-barrier below-band-gap absorption exhibits a red-shift, while the Urbach tail corresponding to the absorption within the quantum wells is blue-shifted, due to the partial compensation of the internal piezoelectric fields by the external bias.more » The good agreement between the measured Urbach tail and its modeling by the localization theory thus demonstrates the applicability of the latter to compositional disorder effects in nitride semiconductors.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [2];  [3];  [3];  [3];  [4];  [4];  [4];  [1]
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Ecole Polytechnique, Univ. of Paris-Saclay, Palaiseau (France). Lab. of Condensed Matter Physics; Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States). Dept. of Materials
  2. National Taiwan Univ., Taipei (Taiwan). Graduate Inst. of Photonics and Optoelectronics and Dept. of Electrical Engineering
  3. Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States). Dept. of Materials
  4. Ecole Polytechnique, Univ. of Paris-Saclay, Palaiseau (France). Lab. of Condensed Matter Physics
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Building Technologies Office (EE-5B); French National Research Agency (ANR); Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), Taipei (Taiwan)
OSTI Identifier:
1429092
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1352104
Grant/Contract Number:  
EE0007096; ANR-14-CE05-0048-01; MOST-104-2923-E-002-004-MY3; MOST-105-2221-E-002-098-MY3
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Physical Review B
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 95; Journal Issue: 14; Journal ID: ISSN 2469-9950
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS; 14 SOLAR ENERGY; 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; disordered alloys; LEDs; nitrides; semiconductor compounds; optical absorption spectroscopy

Citation Formats

Piccardo, Marco, Li, Chi-Kang, Wu, Yuh-Renn, Speck, James S., Bonef, Bastien, Farrell, Robert M., Filoche, Marcel, Martinelli, Lucio, Peretti, Jacques, and Weisbuch, Claude. Localization landscape theory of disorder in semiconductors. II. Urbach tails of disordered quantum well layers. United States: N. p., 2017. Web. doi:10.1103/physrevb.95.144205.
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Piccardo, Marco, Li, Chi-Kang, Wu, Yuh-Renn, Speck, James S., Bonef, Bastien, Farrell, Robert M., Filoche, Marcel, Martinelli, Lucio, Peretti, Jacques, & Weisbuch, Claude. Localization landscape theory of disorder in semiconductors. II. Urbach tails of disordered quantum well layers. United States. doi:10.1103/physrevb.95.144205.
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Piccardo, Marco, Li, Chi-Kang, Wu, Yuh-Renn, Speck, James S., Bonef, Bastien, Farrell, Robert M., Filoche, Marcel, Martinelli, Lucio, Peretti, Jacques, and Weisbuch, Claude. Tue . "Localization landscape theory of disorder in semiconductors. II. Urbach tails of disordered quantum well layers". United States. doi:10.1103/physrevb.95.144205. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1429092.
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@article{osti_1429092,
title = {Localization landscape theory of disorder in semiconductors. II. Urbach tails of disordered quantum well layers},
author = {Piccardo, Marco and Li, Chi-Kang and Wu, Yuh-Renn and Speck, James S. and Bonef, Bastien and Farrell, Robert M. and Filoche, Marcel and Martinelli, Lucio and Peretti, Jacques and Weisbuch, Claude},
abstractNote = {Urbach tails in semiconductors are often associated to effects of compositional disorder. The Urbach tail observed in InGaN alloy quantum wells of solar cells and LEDs by biased photocurrent spectroscopy is shown to be characteristic of the ternary alloy disorder. The broadening of the absorption edge observed for quantum wells emitting from violet to green (indium content ranging from 0% to 28%) corresponds to a typical Urbach energy of 20 meV. A three-dimensional absorption model is developed based on a recent theory of disorder-induced localization which provides the effective potential seen by the localized carriers without having to resort to the solution of the Schrödinger equation in a disordered potential. This model incorporating compositional disorder accounts well for the experimental broadening of the Urbach tail of the absorption edge. For energies below the Urbach tail of the InGaN quantum wells, type-II well-to-barrier transitions are observed and modeled. This contribution to the below-band-gap absorption is particularly efficient in near-ultraviolet emitting quantum wells.When reverse biasing the device, the well-to-barrier below-band-gap absorption exhibits a red-shift, while the Urbach tail corresponding to the absorption within the quantum wells is blue-shifted, due to the partial compensation of the internal piezoelectric fields by the external bias. The good agreement between the measured Urbach tail and its modeling by the localization theory thus demonstrates the applicability of the latter to compositional disorder effects in nitride semiconductors.},
doi = {10.1103/physrevb.95.144205},
journal = {Physical Review B},
number = 14,
volume = 95,
place = {United States},
year = {2017},
month = {4}
}
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DOI:  10.1103/physrevb.95.144205
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Figures / Tables:

FIG. 1 FIG. 1: (a) Schematic of the InGaN/GaN solar cell structures grown by MOCVD. (b) Contact geometry of the processed devices.
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    Figures / Tables found in this record:

    FIG. 1(p. 4)figure
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    FIG. 8(p. 9)figure
    TABLE I(p. 9)table
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