Photoluminescence characterization of nonradiative recombination in carbon-doped GaAs

Room‐temperature photoluminescence is used to investigate the basic recombination mechanisms in carbon‐doped GaAs samples, with hole concentrations ranging from 3.0×1016 to 1.2×1020 cm−3. The solution of a one‐dimensional, steady‐state continuity equation for minority carriers indicates that in heavily carbon‐doped GaAs, surface recombination is minimal, while bulk nonradiative recombination is dominant. The bulk nonradiative recombination rate depends not only on p2, which represents Auger recombination, but also on p3. By using a single p+‐GaAs:C (1×1020 cm−3) base layer in an AlGaAs/GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistor, the surface recombination is minimized.