Charge-state effects of deep centres in semiconductors on non-radiative capture of carriers by multiphonon processes

Abstract

A set of simplified analytical expressions for carrier capture coefficients, including quantatively the charge-dependent effect, have been obtained for easy physical examination and comparison with experiments. The temperature-related charge-state-dependent factorF(T) thus calculated could be used to present more accurately the nature and magnitude of the charge state of a trap centre. The ranges of values ofF(T) valid for attractive, repulsive and neutral centres are also obtained. In addition, we show that the thermal ionization energy for theB centre in GaAs is a function of temperature. The importance of the data of capture cross-section at low temperatures in determining the charge state and characteristic of a deep centre is also manifested. Both the absolute magnitude and the temperature-dependent behaviour of the calculated capture cross-section are well-supported by the very good fits to the experimental electron cross-sections forA andB centres in GaAs reported by Lang [7] and Wang et al. [22] and for Cu centre in Ge reported by Zhdanova and Kalashnikov [23].