Locality of conical intersections in semiconductor nanomaterials

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (21) ◽  
pp. 10870-10878 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin G. Levine ◽  
Wei-Tao Peng ◽  
Michael P. Esch

We review recent efforts to model nonradiative recombination in semiconductor nanoparticles through conical intersections, focusing on the reasons for and consequences of the locality of such intersections.

2019 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin G. Levine ◽  
Michael P. Esch ◽  
B. Scott Fales ◽  
Dylan T. Hardwick ◽  
Wei-Tao Peng ◽  
...  

The ability to predict and describe nonradiative processes in molecules via the identification and characterization of conical intersections is one of the greatest recent successes of theoretical chemistry. Only recently, however, has this concept been extended to materials science, where nonradiative recombination limits the efficiencies of materials for various optoelectronic applications. In this review, we present recent advances in the theoretical study of conical intersections in semiconductor nanomaterials. After briefly introducing conical intersections, we argue that specific defects in materials can induce conical intersections between the ground and first excited electronic states, thus introducing pathways for nonradiative recombination. We present recent developments in theoretical methods, computational tools, and chemical intuition for the prediction of such defect-induced conical intersections. Through examples in various nanomaterials, we illustrate the significance of conical intersections for nanoscience. We also discuss challenges facing research in this area and opportunities for progress.


Nano Letters ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (9) ◽  
pp. 6247-6253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yinan Shu ◽  
B. Scott Fales ◽  
Benjamin G. Levine

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (17) ◽  
pp. 4091-4099 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yinan Shu ◽  
B. Scott Fales ◽  
Wei-Tao Peng ◽  
Benjamin G. Levine

Author(s):  
K.M. Hones ◽  
P. Sheldon ◽  
B.G. Yacobi ◽  
A. Mason

There is increasing interest in growing epitaxial GaAs on Si substrates. Such a device structure would allow low-cost substrates to be used for high-efficiency cascade- junction solar cells. However, high-defect densities may result from the large lattice mismatch (∼4%) between the GaAs epilayer and the silicon substrate. These defects can act as nonradiative recombination centers that can degrade the optical and electrical properties of the epitaxially grown GaAs. For this reason, it is important to optimize epilayer growth conditions in order to minimize resulting dislocation densities. The purpose of this paper is to provide an indication of the quality of the epitaxially grown GaAs layers by using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to examine dislocation type and density as a function of various growth conditions. In this study an intermediate Ge layer was used to avoid nucleation difficulties observed for GaAs growth directly on Si substrates. GaAs/Ge epilayers were grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on Si substrates in a manner similar to that described previously.


2003 ◽  
Vol 764 ◽  
Author(s):  
X. A. Cao ◽  
S. F. LeBoeuf ◽  
J. L. Garrett ◽  
A. Ebong ◽  
L. B. Rowland ◽  
...  

Absract:Temperature-dependent electroluminescence (EL) of InGaN/GaN multiple-quantum-well light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with peak emission energies ranging from 2.3 eV (green) to 3.3 eV (UV) has been studied over a wide temperature range (5-300 K). As the temperature is decreased from 300 K to 150 K, the EL intensity increases in all devices due to reduced nonradiative recombination and improved carrier confinement. However, LED operation at lower temperatures (150-5 K) is a strong function of In ratio in the active layer. For the green LEDs, emission intensity increases monotonically in the whole temperature range, while for the blue and UV LEDs, a remarkable decrease of the light output was observed, accompanied by a large redshift of the peak energy. The discrepancy can be attributed to various amounts of localization states caused by In composition fluctuation in the QW active regions. Based on a rate equation analysis, we find that the densities of the localized states in the green LEDs are more than two orders of magnitude higher than that in the UV LED. The large number of localized states in the green LEDs are crucial to maintain high-efficiency carrier capture at low temperatures.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 05005-1-05005-5
Author(s):  
I. D. Stolyarchuk ◽  
◽  
I. Rogalska ◽  
S. V. Koretskii ◽  
I. Stefaniuk ◽  
...  

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