Atomistic analysis of Auger recombination in c-plane (In,Ga)N/GaN quantum wells: Temperature-dependent competition between radiative and nonradiative recombination
| dc.contributor.author | McMahon, Joshua M. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Kioupakis, Emmanouil | |
| dc.contributor.author | Schulz, Stefan | |
| dc.contributor.funder | Science Foundation Ireland | en |
| dc.contributor.funder | Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland | en |
| dc.contributor.funder | University of Michigan | en |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2022-05-16T13:51:23Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2022-05-16T13:51:23Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2022-05-12 | |
| dc.date.updated | 2022-05-16T12:02:34Z | |
| dc.description.abstract | We present an atomistic theoretical study of the temperature dependence of the competition between Auger and radiative recombination in c-plane (In,Ga)N/GaN quantum wells with indium (In) contents of 10%, 15%, and 25%. The model accounts for random alloy fluctuations and the connected fluctuations in strain and built-in field. Our investigations reveal that the total Auger recombination rate exhibits a weak temperature dependence; at a temperature of 300 K and a carrier density of n3D=3.8×1018cm−3, we find total Auger coefficients in the range of ≈6×10−30cm6/s(10% In) to ≈3×10−31cm6/s (25% In), thus large enough to significantly impact the efficiency in (In,Ga)N systems. Our calculations show that the hole-hole-electron Auger rate dominates the total rate for the three In contents studied; however, the relative difference between the hole-hole-electron and electron-electron-hole contributions decreases as the In content is increased to 25%. Our studies provide further insight into the origin of the “thermal droop” (i.e., the decrease in internal quantum efficiency with increasing temperature at a fixed carrier density) in (In,Ga)N-based light-emitting diodes. We find that the ratio of radiative to nonradiative (Auger) recombination increases in the temperature range relevant to the thermal droop (≥300 K), suggesting that the competition between these processes is not driving this droop effect in c-plane (In,Ga)N/GaN quantum wells. This finding is in line with recent experimental studies. | en |
| dc.description.sponsorship | Science Foundation Ireland and Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (Grants No. 17/CDA/4789 and No. 12/RC/2276 P2); University of Michigan (Blue Sky Research Program) | en |
| dc.description.status | Peer reviewed | en |
| dc.description.version | Published Version | en |
| dc.format.mimetype | application/pdf | en |
| dc.identifier.articleid | 195307 | en |
| dc.identifier.citation | McMahon, J. M., Kioupakis, E. and Schulz, S. (2022) 'Atomistic analysis of Auger recombination in c -plane (In,Ga)N/GaN quantum wells: Temperature-dependent competition between radiative and nonradiative recombination', Physical Review B, 105, 195307 (14pp). doi: 10.1103/PhysRevB.105.195307 | en |
| dc.identifier.doi | 10.1103/PhysRevB.105.195307 | en |
| dc.identifier.eissn | 2469-9969 | |
| dc.identifier.endpage | 14 | en |
| dc.identifier.issn | 2469-9950 | |
| dc.identifier.journaltitle | Physical Review B | en |
| dc.identifier.startpage | 1 | en |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/10468/13187 | |
| dc.identifier.volume | 105 | en |
| dc.language.iso | en | en |
| dc.publisher | American Physical Society | en |
| dc.rights | © 2022, American Physical Society. All rights reserved. | en |
| dc.subject | Atomistic theoretical study | en |
| dc.subject | Temperature dependence | en |
| dc.subject | Competition | en |
| dc.subject | Auger recombination | en |
| dc.subject | C-plane (In,Ga)N/GaN quantum wells | en |
| dc.subject | Radiative | en |
| dc.subject | Indium (In) | en |
| dc.subject | Thermal droop | en |
| dc.subject | Nonradiative | en |
| dc.title | Atomistic analysis of Auger recombination in c-plane (In,Ga)N/GaN quantum wells: Temperature-dependent competition between radiative and nonradiative recombination | en |
| dc.type | Article (peer-reviewed) | en |
