Hot carrier relaxation and inhibited thermalization in superlattice heterostructures: The potential for phonon management

Esmaielpour, Hamidreza; Durant, Brandon K.; Dorman, Kyle R.; Whiteside, Vincent R.; Garg, Jivtesh; Mishima, Tetsuya D.; Santos, Michael B.; Sellers, Ian R.; Guillemoles, Jean-François; Suchet, Daniel

doi:10.1063/5.0052600

Title: Hot carrier relaxation and inhibited thermalization in superlattice heterostructures: The potential for phonon management

Journal Article · Wed May 26 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0052600· OSTI ID:1853165

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CNRS-Institute Photovoltaïque d'Ile de France (IPVF), Palaiseau (France)
University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (United States). Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (United States). School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
CNRS-Institute Photovoltaïque d'Ile de France (IPVF), Palaiseau (France); CNRS-Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau (France)
CNRS-Institute Photovoltaïque d'Ile de France (IPVF), Palaiseau (France); CNRS-Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau (France)

One of the main loss mechanisms in photovoltaic solar cells is the thermalization of photogenerated hot carriers via phonon-mediated relaxation. By inhibiting these relaxation mechanisms and reducing thermalization losses it may be possible to improve the power conversion efficiency of solar cells beyond the single gap limit. Here, type-II InAs/AlAsSb multi-quantum well structures are investigated to study the impact of the phononic properties of the AlAsSb barrier material in hot carrier thermalization. Experimental and theoretical results show that by increasing the barrier thickness (increasing the relative contribution of AlAsSb content in the superlattices), that the relaxation of hot carriers is reduced as observed in power- dependent photoluminescence and thermalization analysis. This is attributed to an increase in the phononic band gap of the MQW with increasing AlAsSb composition reducing the efficiency of the dominant Klemens mechanism as the phononic properties shift towards a more AlSb-like behavior.

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Research Organization:: Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division; National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0019384; ANR-IEED-002-02; ANR-19-CE05-0019; 1847129

OSTI ID:: 1853165

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1784790; OSTI ID: 1987851

Journal Information:: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 118, Issue 21; ISSN 0003-6951

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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