Minority Carrier Transport and Their Lifetime in InGaAs/GaAsP Multiple Quantum Well Structures

Author

Carlin, C. Zachary ; Bradshaw, Geoffrey K. ; Samberg, Joshua P. ; Colter, Peter C. ; Bedair, S.M.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC, USA

Volume

60

Issue

8

fYear

2013

fDate

Aug. 2013

Firstpage

2532

Lastpage

2536

Abstract

Minority carrier transport across InGaAs/GaAsP multiple quantum wells is studied by measuring the response of p-i-n and n-i-p GaAs solar cell structures. It is observed that the spectral response depends critically upon the width of the GaAsP barriers and the device polarity. Electron tunneling is not as efficient as hole tunneling due to a higher conduction band barrier. The spectral response depends on the relative magnitude of the carrier lifetime as compared with the tunneling lifetime. This paper deduces an estimated electron lifetime of 110 ns in In_0.14Ga_0.86As wells and 25 ns in In_0.17Ga_0.83As wells, which agree with published results.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; carrier lifetime; gallium arsenide; indium compounds; semiconductor quantum wells; tunnelling; InGaAs-GaAsP; conduction band barrier; device polarity; electron tunneling; hole tunneling; lifetime; minority carrier transport; multiple quantum well structures; n-i-p solar cell structures; p-i-n solar cell structures; Absorption; Gallium arsenide; Indium gallium arsenide; Photovoltaic cells; Quantum well devices; Radiative recombination; Tunneling; Indium Gallium Arsenide; quantum wells; tunneling;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9383

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TED.2013.2268421

Filename

6558757