Impact of Photon Recycling, Grain Boundaries, and Nonlinear Recombination on Energy Transport in Semiconductors

deQuilettes, Dane W.; Brenes, Roberto; Laitz, Madeleine; Motes, Brandon T.; Glazov, Mikhail M.; Bulović, Vladimir

doi:10.1021/acsphotonics.1c01186

Title: Impact of Photon Recycling, Grain Boundaries, and Nonlinear Recombination on Energy Transport in Semiconductors

Journal Article · 19 December 2021 · ACS Photonics

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsphotonics.1c01186 · OSTI ID:3001064

^[1]; Brenes, Roberto ^[1]; Laitz, Madeleine ^[1]; Motes, Brandon T. ^[1];

^[2]; Bulović, Vladimir ^[1]

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA (United States)
Ioffe Institute, Saint Petersburg (Russian Federation)

Energy carrier transport and recombination in semiconductors can be directly monitored with optical microscopy, revealing key insights into fundamental photophysics and informs efficient optoelectronic device design. Oftentimes, energy transport is measured by monitoring a time-resolved expanding carrier profile after optical excitation under a focused laser beam. Although this approach has gained widespread adoption, the presence of competing dynamic processes, such as diffusion and photon recycling, has made it difficult to accurately extract and understand important semiconductor properties. Here, we develop and apply a new framework for modeling energy transport in both excitonic and free carrier semiconductors. Here, we demonstrate that processes such as nonlinear recombination and photon recycling can have a significant impact on the apparent energy carrier profiles, especially for excitonic materials with short radiative lifetimes. Additionally, we find that film microstructure can lead to unique transport profiles that strongly depends on material boundary behavior and the difference between feature size and diffusion length. Here, these findings provide a deeper understanding of energy transport in semiconducting materials and provide new strategies for the design and optimization of electronic and optoelectronic devices.

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Research Organization:: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE); National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship

Grant/Contract Number:: EE0009512

OSTI ID:: 3001064

Journal Information:: ACS Photonics, Journal Name: ACS Photonics Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 9; ISSN 2330-4022

Publisher:: American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Title: Impact of Photon Recycling, Grain Boundaries, and Nonlinear Recombination on Energy Transport in Semiconductors

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