Photoproduced charged defects in dielectrics: Hopping, drift and recombination in random intrinsic electric fields

Recombination of localized defects through their hopping motion is considered. An essential difference in the behavior of charged and uncharged defects has been established. In the former case, random electric fields, created by charged defects, sharply accelerate their recombination as compared with the case of uncharged defects. First, the hopping rate of every localized charge is enhanced by the total field of the rest of charges. Second, recombination is strongly accelerated by the drift motion of opposite-sign charges in the field of their pair interaction. A simple analytical description of the recombination process, comprising both mechanisms, was developed and corroborated by the numerical statistical modeling of the recombination process.