Non-Radiative Recombination at Dynamic Shallow Level

To date, the Shockley-Read-Hall (SRH) theory is the ruling theory explaining the defect-mediated non-radiative recombination (NRR) of excited carriers. However, recent first-principles calculations show that the SRH theory seriously underestimates the NRR rate. While the potential importance of ionic relaxation has been implicated, the model has yet to be confirmed. Here, we present the theoretical formalism of the NRR that involves intermediate ionic relaxation. As a demonstration, we show that the DX center is an efficient NRR center by carrier capture at dynamics shallow level. As the concentration of DX center can be controlled in experiments, this NRR mechanism may be readily verified.