Transcript Slide 1

Defect-related Recombination And Free-Carrier
Diffusion Near An Isolated Defect In GaAs
Mark Crowley
Tim Gfroerer
Davidson College, Davidson, NC
Mark Wanlass
National Renewable Energy Lab,
Golden, CO
Funded by The American
Chemical Society - Petroleum
Research Fund
Side View of a Solar Cell
Photons
Absorption Layer
~ 2 µm
Mechanisms for Recombination
Isolated Dislocations in a high quality GaAs
sample
Zoomed View of a Single Isolated
Dislocation with Changing Laser Excitation
Diffusion
Dislocation
Side View of Isolated Dislocation Defects
in a Solar Cell under High Illumination
Photons
Dislocations
~ 2 nm
Absorption Layer
~ 2 µm
Side View of Isolated Dislocation Defects
in a Solar Cell under Low Illumination
Absorption Layer
~ 2 µm
DislocationDead Volume
Modeling the Dislocation
Experimental Images
Computational Model
Total




2
recom
binat
ion

  An  Bn


rate


Defect-Related Recombination
Radiative Recombination
Better fits with a more Complex
Model
Experimental Images
1W
1.0
.1W
.75
.5
.9
1W
.6
.66
.01W
Computational Model
.001W
.3
.2
1.0
.1W
.66
.01W
.75
.9
.6
.001W
.5
Total




 recom bination  A (dP * dDN  dN * dDP)  B * dP * dN


rate


.3
.2
Conclusions
• Defects produce “dead spots” where defect-related
recombination is high.
• These defects act as sinks, drawing in nearby charge carriers by
diffusion.
• When modeling these defects, if we use a recombination model
that does not account for the occupation of defect and band
states separately, we are unable to reproduce the experimental
images.
• Simulating this behavior accurately requires that state
occupations are computed and vary independently with a more
flexible computational model.