[b]indirect band gap semiconductor doubt[/b]

munna007

its said that indirect band gap semiconductors like silicon and germanium are not used as a light sources because they have more non-radiative recombinations rather than radiative ,which inturn decreases efficiency of optical source.

but i want to understand how indirect band gap materials produce non-radiative photons.

i have studied many books like keiser , senior on optical fibre .those all are not explanatory on this ....also googled for this ,but not helped from there.....

hoping for help here....thanks.....love to all....

MATLABdude

The answer is that they do not produce non-radiative photons. There are a few radiative photons produced, but the majority of recombinations will result in phonons (lattice vibrations) and heating of the semiconductor. My semiconductor physics is a little rusty, but I think that Auger recombination is the phrase you're looking for.

The book I used for my condensed matter physics (which covered this) was Kittel's Introduction to Solid State Physics.

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