Recombination rates

Zawadski A G and Hynes J T 1989 Radical recombination rate constants from gas to liquid phase J. Phys. Chem. 93 7031-6... 

With M = He, experimeuts were carried out between 255 K aud 273 K with a few millibar NO2 at total pressures between 300 mbar aud 200 bar. Temperature jumps on the order of 1 K were effected by pulsed irradiation (< 1 pS) with a CO2 laser at 9.2- 9.6pm aud with SiF or perfluorocyclobutaue as primary IR absorbers (< 1 mbar). Under these conditions, the dissociation of N2O4 occurs within the irradiated volume on a time scale of a few hundred microseconds. NO2 aud N2O4 were monitored simultaneously by recording the time-dependent UV absorption signal at 420 run aud 253 run, respectively. The recombination rate constant can be obtained from the effective first-order relaxation time, A derivation analogous to (equation (B2.5.9). equation (B2.5.10). equation (B2.5.11) and equation (B2.5.12)) yield... 

A classic shock-tube study concerned the high-temperature recombination rate and equilibrium for methyl radical recombination [M, Ml- Methyl radicals were first produced in a fast decomposition of diazomethane at high temperatures (T > 1000 K)... 

Figure B2.5.7 shows the absorption traces of the methyl radical absorption as a fiinction of tune. At the time resolution considered, the appearance of CFt is practically instantaneous. Subsequently, CFl disappears by recombination (equation B2.5.28). At temperatures below 1500 K, the equilibrium concentration of CFt is negligible compared witli (left-hand trace) the recombination is complete. At temperatures above 1500 K (right-hand trace) the equilibrium concentration of CFt is appreciable, and thus the teclmique allows the detennination of botli the equilibrium constant and the recombination rate [54, M]. This experiment resolved a famous controversy on the temperature dependence of the recombination rate of methyl radicals. Wliile standard RRKM theories [, ] predicted an increase of the high-pressure recombination rate coefficient /r (7) by a factor of 10-30 between 300 K and 1400 K, the statistical-adiabatic-chaunel model predicts a...

Glanzer K, Quack M and Troe J 1976 A spectroscopic determination of the methyl radical recombination rate constant in shockwaves Chem. Phys. Lett. 39 304-9... 

At equilibrium, when the ionization and recombination rates are balanced, the ionization constant AT (in atm) is given by... 

The internal quantum efficiency of a LED is governed by the relative radiative and nonradiative recombination rates. The total recombination rate,... 

R, for electrons is the sum of the radiative and nonradiative recombination rates, and is given by equation 2 ... 

Thushigh internal quantum efficiency requires short radiative and long nonradiative lifetimes. Nonradiative lifetimes are generally a function of the semiconductor material quaUty and are typically on the order of microseconds to tens of nanoseconds for high quahty material. The radiative recombination rate, n/r, is given by equation 4 ... 

Direct and Indirect Energy Gap. The radiative recombination rate is dramatically affected by the nature of the energy gap, E, of the semiconductor. The energy gap is defined as the difference in energy between the minimum of the conduction band and the maximum of the valence band in momentum, k, space. Eor almost all semiconductors, the maximum of the valence band occurs where holes have zero momentum, k = 0. Direct semiconductors possess a conduction band minimum at the same location, k = O T point, where electrons also have zero momentum as shown in Eigure la. Thus radiative transitions that occur in direct semiconductors satisfy the law of conservation of momentum. 

The equihbtium lever relation, np = can be regarded from a chemical kinetics perspective as the result of a balance between the generation and recombination of electrons and holes (21). In extrinsic semiconductors recombination is assisted by chemical defects, such as transition metals, which introduce new energy levels in the energy gap. The recombination rate in extrinsic semiconductors is limited by the lifetime of minority carriers which, according to the equihbtium lever relation, have much lower concentrations than majority carriers. Thus, for a -type semiconductor where electrons are the minority carrier, the recombination rate is /S n/z. An = n — is the increase of the electron concentration over its value in thermal equihbtium, and... 

Biisslcr et ai [110-113] treated charge recombination in organic LEDs in terms of chemical kinetics. The probability of recombination depends on the ratio of recombination rate ynp-np (where y represents a bimolecular rate constant) and the transition time (itr=dlpE) of the charge carriers through the device. 

The recombination rate Ptlx, which is defined as the number of generated exci-tons in A/ divided by the number of generated excitons in At plus the number of minority carriers passing through the device in At, for an unbalanced LED (where j(x) jp(x) 3> j (x) and pp pH) is given by the following equation ... 

Obviously, the recombination rate increases with decreasing transition time of the minority charge carriers. 

This means that the PMC signal will, apart from the generation rate of minority carriers and a proportionality constant, be determined by the interfacial charge transfer rate constant kr and the interfacial charge recombination rate sr... 

Figure 13. Numerically calculated PMC potential curves from transport equations (14)—(17) without simplifications for different interfacial reaction rate constants for minority carriers (holes in n-type semiconductor) (a) PMC peak in depletion region. Bulk lifetime 10" s, combined interfacial rate constants (sr = sr + kr) inserted in drawing. Dark points, calculation from analytical formula (18). (b) PMC peak in accumulation region. Bulk lifetime 10 5s. The combined interfacial charge-transfer and recombination rate ranges from 10 (1), 100 (2), 103 (3), 3 x 103 (4), 104 (5), 3 x 104 (6) to 106 (7) cm s"1. The flatband potential is indicated.

Figure 14. PMC potential dependence, calculated from analytical formula (18) for different interfacial rate constants for minority carriers S = 1 cm, minority carrier flux toward interface I,- 1 cm-2s 1, a= 780enr1, L = 0.01 cm, 0=11.65 cmV, Ld = 2x 0"3cm), (a) sr = 0 and different charge-transfer rates (inserted in the figures in cm s 1), (b) Constant charge-transfer rate and different surface recombination rates (indicated in the figure).

Figure 16 shows such PMC peaks in the depletion region for electrodes of Si,9 WSez8 and ZnO.12 They all appear near the onset of anodic photocurrents. They have different shapes, which, however, can easily be explained with the assumption of potential-dependent interfacial charge-transfer and charge recombination rates. 

As outlined at the beginning of this chapter, combined photocurrent and microwave conductivity measurements supply the information needed to determine three relevant potential-dependent quantities the surface concentration of excess minority carriers (Aps), the interfacial recombination rate (sr), and the interfacial charge-transfer rate ( r). By inserting the... 

Interesting results have also been obtained with light-induced oscillations of silicon in contact with ammonium fluoride solutions. The quantum efficiency was found to oscillate complementarity with the PMC signal. The calculated surface recombination rate also oscillated comple-mentarily with the charge transfer rate.27,28 The explanation was a periodically oscillating silicon oxide surface layer. Because of a periodically changing space charge layer, the situation turned out to be nevertheless relatively complicated. 

Another way to determine the sensitivity factor consists in determining the difference between the PMC minimum (flatband potential) and the PMC maximum in the accumulation region (the infinite and negligible surface recombination rate). This difference can be calculated to be17... 

Equation (40) relates the lifetime of potential-dependent PMC transients to stationary PMC signals and thus interfacial rate constants [compare (18)]. In order to verify such a correlation and see whether the interfacial recombination rates can be controlled in the accumulation region via the applied electrode potentials, experiments with silicon/polymer junctions were performed.38 The selected polymer, poly(epichlorhydrine-co-ethylenoxide-co-allyl-glycylether, or technically (Hydrine-T), to which lithium perchlorate or potassium iodide were added as salt, should not chemically interact with silicon, but can provide a solid electrolyte contact able to polarize the silicon/electrode interface. 

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