Theory of nonradiative transitions of hot carriers in Si/SiO2 nanocrystals

Energy relaxation of hot electrons and holes confined in silicon nanocrystals embedded in SiO2 matrix is studied theoretically. Phonon-assisted transitions rates strongly depend on nanocrystal diameter ranging from 108 s–1 to 10–12 s–1. The Auger-like transitions are found to be considerably faster and lead to rapid energy exchange within electron-hole pair (© 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)