indirect bandgap semiconductor

why indirect band gap semiconductors r not used for lighting devices?

Radiative recombination is far slower in indirect band gap materials than direct band gap ones.
Direct and indirect band gaps - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Light absorption and emission in a semiconductor is known to be heavily dependent on the detailed band structure of the semiconductor. Direct bandgap semiconductors, i.e semiconductors for which the minimum of the conduction band occurs at the same wavevector, k, as the maximum of the valence band, have a stronger absorption of light as characterized by a larger absorption coefficient. They are also the favored semiconductors when fabricating light emitting devices. Indirect bandgap semiconductors, i.e. semiconductors for which the minimum of the conduction band does not occur at the same wavevector as the maximum of the valence band, are known to have a smaller absorption coefficient and are rarely used in light emitting devices.


Figure 1: E-k diagram illustrating
a) Photon absorption in a direct bandgap semiconductor
b) Photon absorption in an indirect bandgap semiconductor assisted by phonon absorption &
c) Photon absorption in an indirect bandgap semiconductor assisted by phonon emission.

This striking difference is further illustrated with Figure 1 and can be explained based on the energy and momentum conservation required in the electron-photon interaction. The direct bandgap semiconductor, which has a vertically aligned conduction and valence band, is shown in Figure 1(a). Absorption of a photon is obtained if an empty state in the conduction band is available for which the energy and momentum equals that of an electron in the valence band plus that of the incident photon. Photons have little momentum relative of their energy since they travel at the speed of light. The electron therefore makes an almost vertical transition on the E-k diagram.

For an indirect bandgap semiconductor, the conduction band is not vertically aligned to the valence band as shown in Figure 1(b). Therefore a simply interaction of an incident photon with an electron in the valence band will not provide the correct energy and momentum corresponding to that of an empty state in the conduction band. As a result absorption of light requires the help of another particle, namely a photon. Since a phonon, i.e a particle associated with lattice vibrations, has a relatively low velocity close to the speed of sound in the material, it has a small energy and large momentum compared to that of a photon. Conservation of both energy and momentum can therefore be obtained in the absorption process if a phonon is created or an existing phonon participates. The phonon assisted absorption processes are illustrated with Figure 1(b) and (c). Figure 1(b) illustrates the absorption of a photon aided by the simultaneous absorption of a phonon, while Figure 1(c) depicts the absorption of a photon, which results in the emission of a phonon. The minimum photon energy that can be absorbed is slightly below the bandgap energy in the case of phonon absorption and has to be slightly above the bandgap energy in the case of phonon emission. Since the absorption process in an indirect bandgap semiconductor involves a phonon in addition to the electron and photon, the probability of having an interaction take place involving all three particles will be lower than a simple electron-photon interaction in a direct bandgap semiconductor. As a result one finds that absorption is much stronger in a direct bandgap material.


Similarly, in the case of light emission, a direct bandgap material is also more likely to emit a photon than an indirect bandgap material. While indirect bandgap materials are occasionally used for some LEDs, they result in a low conversion efficiency. Direct bandgap materials are used exclusively for semiconductor laser diodes.


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