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We systematically investigate the influence of free-electron concentrations from 1.5 x1017 cm- 3 up to 1.6x1021 cm- 3 on the optical properties of single-crystalline In2O3 in the cubic bixbyite structure. Dielectric functions of bulk crystals and epitaxial films on various substrates are determined by spectroscopic ellipsometry from the mid-infrared (37 meV ≈ 300 cm- 1) into the ultraviolet (6.5 eV) spectral region. Eight transverse optical phonon modes are resolvable for low carrier-density material. The analysis of the plasma frequencies yields effective electron masses which increase from a zero-density mass of m* = 0.18m0 to 0.4m0 at n = 1021 cm-3. This mirrors the nonparabolicity of the conduction band being described by an analytical expression. The onset of absorption due to dipole-allowed interband transitions is found at 3.8 eV for n ≤ 1019 cm-3. It undergoes a blue-shift (effective Burstein-Moss shift) for higher electron densities as a result of the dominating phase-space filling compared to band gap renormalization. A comprehensive model describing the absorption onset is developed, taking nonparabolicity into account, yielding an accurate description and explanation of the observations. The agreement of modeled and measured absorption onset independently supports the effective electron masses derived from infrared data. The high-frequency dielectric constant of undoped In2O3 is found to be ≤∞= (4.08 ± 0.02). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbach tails in semiconductors are often associated to effects of compositional disorder. The Urbach tail observed in InGaN alloy quantum wells of solar cells and LEDs by biased photocurrent spectroscopy is shown to be characteristic of the ternary alloy disorder. The broadening of the absorption edge observed for quantum wells emitting from violet to green (indium content ranging from 0% to 28%) corresponds to a typical Urbach energy of 20 meV. A three-dimensional absorption model is developed based on a recent theory of disorder-induced localization which provides the effective potential seen by the localized carriers without having to resort to the solution of the Schrödinger equation in a disordered potential. This model incorporating compositional disorder accounts well for the experimental broadening of the Urbach tail of the absorption edge. For energies below the Urbach tail of the InGaN quantum wells, type-II well-to-barrier transitions are observed and modeled. This contribution to the below-band-gap absorption is particularly efficient in near-ultraviolet emitting quantum wells. When reverse biasing the device, the well-to-barrier below-band-gap absorption exhibits a red-shift, while the Urbach tail corresponding to the absorption within the quantum wells is blue-shifted, due to the partial compensation of the internal piezoelectric fields by the external bias. The good agreement between the measured Urbach tail and its modeling by the localization theory demonstrates the applicability of the latter to compositional disorder effects in nitride semiconductors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a novel method to account for quantum disorder effects into the classical drift-diffusion model of semiconductor transport through the localization landscape theory. Quantum confinement and quantum tunneling in the disordered system change dramatically the energy barriers acting on the perpendicular transport of heterostructures. In addition, they lead to percolative transport through paths of minimal energy in the two-dimensional (2D) landscape of disordered energies of multiple 2D quantum wells. This model solves the carrier dynamics with quantum effects self-consistently and provides a computationally much faster solver when compared with the Schrödinger equation resolution. The theory also provides a good approximation to the density of states for the disordered system over the full range of energies required to account for transport at room temperature. The current-voltage characteristics modeled by three-dimensional simulation of a full nitride-based light emitting diode (LED) structure with compositional material fluctuations closely match the experimental behavior of high-quality blue LEDs. The model allows also a fine analysis of the quantum effects involved in carrier transport through such complex heterostructures. Finally, details of carrier population and recombination in the different quantum wells are given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Time-resolved transmission and reflection measurements were performed for bulk GaN at room temperature to evaluate the energy of the first conduction band satellite valley. The measurements showed clear threshold-like spectra for transmission decay and reflection rise times. The thresholds were associated with the onset of the intervalley electron scattering. Transmission measurements with pump and probe pulses in the near infrared produced an intervalley energy of 0.97 ± 0.02 eV. Ultraviolet pump and infrared probe reflection provided a similar value. Comparison of the threshold energies obtained in these experiments allowed estimating the hole effective mass in the upper valence band to be 1.4 m0. Modeling of the reflection transients with rate equations has allowed estimating electron-LO (longitudinal optical) phonon scattering rates and the satellite valley effective mass. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]