Generation and recombination has been studied extensively for the lead
chalcogenides because of its applications as photodetectors and lasers in the
infrared range [282,283,284,285,286].
In lead telluride, radiative transitions dominate the generation/recombination
behavior due to the direct band gap within pure single crystals. Furthermore,
defects generate states within the band gap and thus have a strong influence on
generation and recombination rates [287,288] which can be
described by the Shockley-Read-Hall model [289]. For high carrier
concentrations, the Auger process becomes highly competitive with direct
recombination [290]. Furthermore, a temperature dependence of the
intrinsic recombination rates analogously to Shockley-Read-Hall recombination is suggested
due to the strong temperature dependence of the band gap as well as the
effective masses. An overview of the mechanisms involved in lead telluride as
well as modeling parameters are given in the sequel.
Subsections
M. Wagner: Simulation of Thermoelectric Devices
