The rate of radiative recombination in the nitride semiconductors and alloys

Abstract

The radiative recombination rates have been calculated for the first time in the wide band gap wurtzite semiconductors GaN, InN and AlN and their solid solutions GaxAl1-xN and InxAl1-xN on the base of existing data on the energy band structure and optical absorption in these materials. We calculated the interband matrix elements for the direct optical transitions between the conductivity band and the valence one using the experimental photon energy dependence of the absorption coefficient near the band edge. In our calculations we assumed that the material parameters of the solid solutions (the interband matrix element, carrier effective masses and so on) could be obtained by a linear interpolation between their values in the alloy components. The temperature dependence of the energy gap was taken in the form proposed by Varshni. The calculations of the radiative recombination rates were performed in the wide range of temperature and alloy compositions.