SRM INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Delhi-NCR Campus, Ghaziabad

Subject Name-Semiconductor Physics and Computational Methods

Subject Code: 21PYB102J

Module-03
(OPTOELECTRONIC PROPERTIES OF SEMICONDUCTORS )

Video-03
By

Dr. Anuradha Shukla

Assistant Professor, Physics
Table of contents

 Concept of optical transitions in bulk semiconductor

 Optical absorption and recombination process
 spontaneous emission-Explanation for stimulated emission
 Joint density of states in semiconductor
 Density of states for photons
 Finite element method to calculate Photon density of states
 Explanation of transition rates
 Optical gain and loss
 Numerical computation of optical loss
 Photovoltaic effect
 Computational approach to calculate optical excitations
Concept of optical transitions in bulk semiconductor
For the optical properties of semiconductors, the photons should interact with charge carriers.

In the process of interaction three process occurs

Absorption
Recombination
Emission
There are several type of transition possibilities are occur
1. Band to band transition (Inter band transition)
2. Impurity level to band transition
3. Free carrier transition (Intra band transition)

1. Band to band transition (Inter band transition)

An absorbed photon can result in an electron in the valence

band making an upward transition to conduction band. This
results electron-hole pair generation, followed by this electron-
hole recombination takes place by the
emission of Photon
2. Impurity level to band transition:
An absorbed photon results in a charge carriers transition between a donor (or) acceptor
level to a band in semiconductor, mostly observed in doped semiconductors.

3. Free carrier transition (intra-band transition):

An absorbed photon can impart its energy to an electron in a given

band, causing it to move higher level in that band. If a lower level
conduction band is considered, by absorbing photon energy the
electron moves to next higher energy level in the same conduction
band.
Optical absorption process :
Absorption is the process in which the photons are absorbed by the semiconductor
materials causes transition of electron from valence band to conduction band.

The condition for absorption to happen, the incident photon energy must be equal
Or grater than the band gap i.e hν ≥ Eg, corresponding wavelength λ = hc/Eg.
The electron hole pairs are generated due to absorption of photon having energy grater
Or equal to band gap.

Emission process: Generally the emission process are takes place in two types in optical
devices
1. Spontaneous emission
2. Stimulated emission
Spontaneous emission: Spontaneous emission, this process requires a conduction band energy state
occupied by an electron and an empty valence band energy state. The
electron Itself transit from conduction band to valence band spontaneously by
releasing a photon.

Stimulated emission:
An incident photon causes an upper level atom to decay, emitting a “stimulated” photon whose
properties are identical to those of the incident photon.
• The generation-recombination process involves transition of charge carriers across the
energy bandgap and is different for direct & indirect bandgap semiconductor materials.
• The probability of radiative recombination is very high in direct bandgap semiconductors
due to momentum & energy conservation.
• Recombination rate of charge carriers is depending upon the lifetime of charge carriers.
• In general, both radiative and non-radiative recombinations are considered, the total
lifetime is given as
To understand Spontaneous Emission and Stimulated Emission,

Now the system in excited state. It can go to ground state by i) spontaneous emission or ii) stimulated emission

Let system goes to ground state by spontaneous

emission after spending it lifetime. Then Number of
atoms de excite to the ground state is

N sp = A21N2
N2-Number atoms in the Excited state
A21- Proportionality constant, Einstein coefficient
Stimulated Emission
Any process which occurs with involvement of external factor is called a stimulated process.

Let system goes to ground state by stimulated emission by external energy

and forcing it to deexcite. Then Number of atoms deexcite to ground state
by stimulated emission is

Nst = B21N2Q

N2-Number atoms in the Excited state

B21- Proportionality constant, Einstein coefficient
Q – Energy density
Absorption:
When energy is gained by a system, and it goes to
higher energy level from lower energy level it is called
absorption. Since External energy is involved, it is
stimulated process.

Hence, the number of atoms undergoing excitation per unit volume per unit time can be
expressed as

Nab = B12QN1

N1-Number atoms in the ground state

B12- Proportionality constant called
Einstein coefficient
Einstein Relation for stimulated emission
Under steady state the total number of absorption is equal to total number of
emission. Therefore

Nab = Nsp + Nst , N1B12Q = N2A21 + N2B21Q , Rearranging we get,

If N0 is Number of particles in ground level and Ni is number of particles in
the ith level, then

Maxwell Boltzmann Distribution

Therefore, we can write

Using Boltzmann distribution

Since B12 =B21, we can write

From Planck’s relation for the blackbody, the energy density is

But,

Equating both, we get

This is ratio of Einstein co-coefficient for spontaneous emission and stimulated emission. This
shows that stimulated emission is finite. This is also known as Einstein relation for stimulated
emission.
Optical Loss
Joint density of states
Fermi Golden rule:
Fermi golden rule provides one way to calculate the transition rate
(probability of transition per unit time) between two certain quantum
mechanically defined states. It gives the rate of any decay process. It can
be given as
4𝜋2 2 𝑑𝑛𝑓
𝑊𝑖𝑓 = 𝑚 ……(1)
ℎ 𝑑𝐸
where 𝑊𝑖𝑓 = rate of transition from initial to final state.
M = matrix element=‫𝜏𝑑 𝑖𝜓 𝑡𝑛𝑖𝐻 ∗𝑓𝜓 ׬‬, 𝐻𝑖𝑛𝑡 ⟶ 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑝𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑖𝑡
also 𝑀 = 𝑓 𝐻𝑖𝑛𝑡 𝑖
4𝜋2 2 𝑑𝑛𝑓
so equation (1), 𝑊𝑖𝑓 = 𝑓 𝐻𝑖𝑛𝑡 𝑖 ,
ℎ 𝑑𝐸
𝑑𝑛𝑓
here is the density of state.
𝑑𝐸
 Photovoltaic effect in PN Junction under illumination

Photovoltaic effect: It is a process that generates voltage or electric current in semiconductor device
when it is exposed to sunlight.

1839 by French physicist, Edmond

Becquerel.

The Solar or Photovoltaic cells are composed of two different types

of semiconductor (a P-type and an N-type) that are joined together to create a PN
Junction
▪If photons is absorbed by the semiconductor then result is generation of electron-hole pair across PN
Junction.

▪This electron-hole pair when separated from each other across the PN junction, results generation of voltage
across the junction.

▪This voltage can drive a current in an external circuit called photocurrent under the uniform illumination
condition, generation of carrier will occur in the space-charge region as well as quasi-neutral region.

▪The carrier that are generated in the space charge region will be immediately swept away due to the electric
field (electron towards N-region and holes towards P-region).

▪The electron-hole pairs that are generated in the quasi-neutral region will move around in a random manner.

▪In their random motion, some of the generated minority carriers will come near to the space charge region
edge, where they will experience a force due to the electric field and will be pulled at the other side

▪Only the minority charge carriers will cross the junction

Ln and Lp - Diffusion length of electron and hole in Quasi neutral region,
W – Width of depletion region or Space charge region, Ev – Energy of
valence band and Ei – Fermi energy
Minority electrons from P-side will come to N-side leaving
behind their positive charge called hole.

Similarly minority hole from N-side moves to P-side leaving

behind their negative charge called electrons.

The drift of charge carriers creates a net increase in the

positive charges at P-side and a net increase in negative
charges at N-side.

This buildup of a positive and negative charge causes a

potential difference to appear across the PN Junction under Dark I-V curve and I-V curve
illumination. The potential difference created across light under illuminated P-N Junction
illuminated PN junction is called photo voltage.

The contribution to the photo voltage is coming only from

the carriers that are generated within the semiconductor
width
(Ln + W + Lp) The light generated current is given by the following equation
Itotal = I0 (e qV / kT – 1) - IL
Solar Cell Materials for Solar cell

Solar cells are composed of various semiconducting

materials

1. Crystalline silicon
2. Cadmium telluride
3. Copper indium diselenide
4. Gallium arsenide
5. Indium phosphide
6. Zinc sulphide

•Over 95% of all the solar cells produced worldwide are

composed of the semiconductor material Silicon (Si).
As the second most abundant element in earth`s crust,
silicon has the advantage, of being available in
sufficient quantities.
 Single Solar cell

N-type
P-type

Solar panel (or) solar array (or) Solar module

The solar panel (or) solar array is the interconnection
of number of solar module to get efficient power.
• A solar module consists of number of
interconnected solar cells.
• These interconnected cells are embedded
between two glass plates to protect from the bad
whether.
• Since the absorption area of the module is high,
more energy can be produced.
Loss in Solar Cell: Factors which affect Efficiency of the
Solar Cell
1. Loss due to Low Energy Photons (h < Eg)
2. Loss due to High Energy Photons (h > Eg)
3. Voltage Loss
4. Fill Factor Loss
5. Loss due to Reflection
6. Loss due to less Absorption
7. Loss due to covering of Metal Contact
8. Recombination Loss
Computational approach to calculate optical excitation,
Example for BN

What is Optical excitation?

•Optical excitation is a process of promoting an electron from a lower energy state to a
higher energy state in a material (for example semiconductor) using light or
electromagnetic radiation.
•Aim: To understand the electronic and optical
properties of a materials, which are crucial for
designing and optimizing optoelectronic devices.

•We can predict and analyze the interaction of light

with the materials, for a wide range of applications in
fields such as photovoltaics, light-emitting diodes
(LEDs), and lasers.
•There are two most important computational methodologies

Quantum mechanical methods :

Quantum mechanical methods, such as Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory

(TDDFT), are widely used for calculating optical excitations in semiconductor
materials like BN.

TDDFT is an extension of Density Functional Theory (DFT) that allows for the description
of excited electronic states and optical properties.

Numerical simulations: They help in modeling the dynamics of excited carriers and
how they interact with the lattice and other carriers.

Numerical simulations, such as time-domain or Monte Carlo simulations, are used

to model the dynamics of excited carriers (electrons and holes) in BN.
These simulations track the carriers' motion, relaxation, and recombination
processes under the influence of external excitation.
Numerical Problems during Computational Approach

•Computational Resources: Performing TDDFT calculations can be computationally demanding,

especially for large systems or high-precision results. Large basis sets and dense k-point grids may
be required to achieve converged results.

•Convergence: Achieving convergence in TDDFT calculations can be challenging.

•Numerical Noise: Numerical approximations and round-off errors can introduce noise into the
calculations. In some cases, this noise can significantly affect the accuracy of the results, especially
in long simulations.

•Nonlinear Effects: Optical excitation problems often involve nonlinear behavior.

Numerical methods can struggle to handle nonlinearity accurately, leading to inaccuracies in the
final results.
Finite Element Method
 The finite element method is a numerical technique to find the approximate solution of
partial definite equations. It helps in producing stiffness and strength visualization. It also
helps to minimize material weight on it’s cost of structures, it allows the entire design to
be constructed, refined, and optimized before the design is manufactured. This tool has
noticeably improved the engineering design standard and methodology of the design
process in many industrial applications. Commonly used numerical methods to solve solid
and fluid mechanics problems are -
▪ finite element method
▪ finite volume method
▪ finite difference method
▪ boundary element method
▪ meshless method.
The finite element method is in general a numerical method for solving partial differential
equations in two or three dimensions. For the solution, a large system is divided into smaller
simple parts called finite elements.
Steps involved in FEM

1. Divide the interval of integration- numerical results is an

approximation to the exact solution
2. Each subinterval, select proper functions to emulate the true
function- the accuracy of the numerical result depends on the
number of sub-intervals and approximate function
On a software system, FEA requires the following information
❑ nodal points spatial locations
❑ elements connecting nodal points
❑ mass properties and boundary restraints
❑ loading function details
❑ analysis options
Applications

 mechanical engineering
 design structural analysis
 solid mechanics
 model mechanisms
 fatigue and fracture mechanics
 thermal and electrical analysis
 computer aided drafting and engineering simulations service
Thank You