Radiative recombination model of degenerate semiconductor and photoluminescence properties of 3C-SiC by P and N doping

Abstract

Based on radiative recombination theory, we have established a recombination model that can be used to calculate photoluminescence (PL) intensity for degenerate semiconductors. Using this model and density functional theory, we calculated photoluminescence excitation (PLE) and PL spectra of intrinsic 3C-SiC, P-doped SiC and N-doped SiC. The violet or near ultraviolet PLE peaks were found to be observed in PLE spectra for Sin−1PCn and SinNCn−1 (n = 4, 8, 12, and 16). Compared to intrinsic 3C-SiC, doped 3C-SiC exhibits higher PL peaks which for P-doped SiC are in the indigo spectral region, near the 3C-SiC’s peak, and for N-doped SiC appear in the green. The phenomena are studied through analyses of band structure, carrier concentration, and absorption. For doped 3C-SiC, the PL properties are mainly improved by the band-gap transformation from indirect to direct and the increase in carrier concentration near the Fermi level.