Observation of Retarded Recombination in ChargeSeparation Structures

Abstract

ABSTRACTMeasurement of recombination and minority-carrier lifetimes has become a very common activity in current semiconductor technology. The two primary measurement techniques are based on photoconductive decay (PCD) and time-resolved photoluminescence (TRPL). The measurement of the “true” lifetime depends on the carriers being confined to a given spatial region of a diagnostic device. When internal electric fields exist that separate the charges, the measured value does not represent the real minority-carrier lifetime. In these cases, the measured quantity is a function of the true lifetime and the measurement technique.