IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v8y2017i1d10.1038_ncomms15734.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Direct and simultaneous observation of ultrafast electron and hole dynamics in germanium

Author

Listed:
  • Michael Zürch

    (University of California at Berkeley)

  • Hung-Tzu Chang

    (University of California at Berkeley)

  • Lauren J. Borja

    (University of California at Berkeley)

  • Peter M. Kraus

    (University of California at Berkeley)

  • Scott K. Cushing

    (University of California at Berkeley)

  • Andrey Gandman

    (University of California at Berkeley
    Present address: Solid State Institute, Technion—Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel)

  • Christopher J. Kaplan

    (University of California at Berkeley)

  • Myoung Hwan Oh

    (University of California at Berkeley
    Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)

  • James S. Prell

    (University of California at Berkeley
    Present address: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403, USA)

  • David Prendergast

    (The Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)

  • Chaitanya D. Pemmaraju

    (The Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
    Theory Institute for Materials and Energy Spectroscopies, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)

  • Daniel M. Neumark

    (University of California at Berkeley
    Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)

  • Stephen R. Leone

    (University of California at Berkeley
    Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
    University of California)

Abstract

Understanding excited carrier dynamics in semiconductors is crucial for the development of photovoltaics and efficient photonic devices. However, overlapping spectral features in optical pump-probe spectroscopy often render assignments of separate electron and hole carrier dynamics ambiguous. Here, ultrafast electron and hole dynamics in germanium nanocrystalline thin films are directly and simultaneously observed by ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy in the extreme ultraviolet at the germanium M4,5 edge. We decompose the spectra into contributions of electronic state blocking and photo-induced band shifts at a carrier density of 8 × 1020 cm−3. Separate electron and hole relaxation times are observed as a function of hot carrier energies. A first-order electron and hole decay of ∼1 ps suggests a Shockley–Read–Hall recombination mechanism. The simultaneous observation of electrons and holes with extreme ultraviolet transient absorption spectroscopy paves the way for investigating few- to sub-femtosecond dynamics of both holes and electrons in complex semiconductor materials and across junctions.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael Zürch & Hung-Tzu Chang & Lauren J. Borja & Peter M. Kraus & Scott K. Cushing & Andrey Gandman & Christopher J. Kaplan & Myoung Hwan Oh & James S. Prell & David Prendergast & Chaitanya D. Pemma, 2017. "Direct and simultaneous observation of ultrafast electron and hole dynamics in germanium," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 8(1), pages 1-11, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms15734
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms15734
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms15734
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/ncomms15734?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tasleem, Sehar & Tahir, Muhammad, 2020. "Current trends in strategies to improve photocatalytic performance of perovskites materials for solar to hydrogen production," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms15734. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.