Optical transitions and energy relaxation of hot carriers in Si nanocrystals

Dynamics of hot carriers confined in Si nanocrystals is studied theoretically using atomistic tight binding approach. Radiative, Auger-like, and phonon-assisted processes are considered. The Auger-like energy exchange between electrons and holes is found to be the fastest process in the system. However, the energy relaxation of hot electron-hole pair is governed by the single optical phonon emission. For a considerable number of states in small nanocrystals, single-phonon processes are ruled out by energy conservation law. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3525375]