Shockley-Read-Hall lifetimes in CdTe

Abstract

A combination of first principles electronic structure calculations, Green's function method, and empirical tight-binding Hamiltonian method is used to evaluate the minority carrier lifetimes of CdTe due to recombination via native point defects in CdTe. For defect energy levels near mid-gap, our calculated value of the Shockley-Read-Hall capture cross section for both electrons and holes is ∼10−13 cm2, which is considerably different from the most commonly employed values. We further find that minority carrier lifetimes in doped CdTe are affected more by defect levels closer to the Fermi level than those in the mid-gap.