Study of Photoluminescence Decay by Time-correlated Single Photon Counting for the Determination of the Minority-carrier Lifetime in Silicon

The minority-carrier lifetime is a crucial parameter for the improvement of electronic or optoelectronic materials and particularly solar cells. We have investigated the potential of the time-correlated single photon counting (TCSPC) for the measurement of time-resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) and the direct determination of the effective minority-carrier lifetime in silicon. The TRPL technique was found to be in very good agreement with quasi-steady state and transient photoconductance results obtained from Sinton Instruments and micro-wave photo- conductance from Semilab. We have demonstrated the ability to evaluate the effective carrier lifetime of silicon substrates over a broad range of values (between a few μs and less than 500 μs).