Exact method of determination of the recombination mode from time resolved photoluminescence data

Abstract

A method of data analysis is proposed for the determination of the carrier recombination processes in optically excited matter measured by time-resolved photoluminescence, differentiating monomolecular, bi-molecular, tri-molecular, and higher order molecular processes. Our method allows to determine whether the so-called ABC model describes time evolution of optical relaxation of the excited system. The procedure is applicable to the time evolution of any optically excited medium. As an illustration, the method is successfully applied to III-nitride polar and non-polar multi-quantum wells. We show that in this case the mono- and bi-molecular processes determine the carrier relaxation, and the tri-molecular Auger recombination contribution is negligible.