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 Schrodinger 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 externalmore »
- Authors:
-
- Ecole Polytechnique, Univ. of Paris-Saclay, Palaiseau (France). Lab. of Condensed Matter Physics; Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States). Dept. of Materials
- National Taiwan Univ., Taipei (Taiwan). Graduate Inst. of Photonics and Optoelectronics and Dept. of Electrical Engineering
- Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States). Dept. of Materials
- 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), Energy Efficiency Office. Building Technologies Office; French National Research Agency (ANR); Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), Taipei (Taiwan)
- Contributing Org.:
- Ecole Polytechnique Paris National Taiwan University
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1429092
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1352104; OSTI ID: 1635239
- 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; Light emitting diodes, solid state lighting
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.
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. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.95.144205
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. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.95.144205. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1429092.
@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 Schrodinger 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 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 = {Tue Apr 18 00:00:00 EDT 2017},
month = {Tue Apr 18 00:00:00 EDT 2017}
}
Web of Science
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