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.