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The nonequilibrium Green’s function picture of inelastic processes in nanostructure photovoltaics

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Abstract

We discuss within the nonequilibrium Green’s function formalism the self-consistent Born approximation of the electronic self-energy for concurrent coupling of charge carriers to photons and phonons. The expansion of the charge carrier Green’s function is shown to provide a description for a range of physical processes with relevance for the photovoltaic device operation, such as indirect optical transitions, thermally assisted photocarrier escape from quantum wells or phonon-mediated interband transfer in tunnel junctions. The nonequilibrium Green’s function picture of these processes is reviewed with focus on the evolution of the system towards the steady state in the convergence of the self-consistency iteration process and on the impact of inelastic scattering on device operation.

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Acknowledgments

This project has received funding from the European Commission Horizon 2020 research and the innovation program under Grant Agreement No. 676629. The authors gratefully acknowledge the computing time granted on the supercomputer JURECA [40] at Jülich Supercomputing Centre (JSC).

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  1. IEK-5 Photovoltaik, Forschungszentrum Jülich, 52425, Jülich, Germany

    Urs Aeberhard

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  1. Urs Aeberhard
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Correspondence to Urs Aeberhard.

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Aeberhard, U. The nonequilibrium Green’s function picture of inelastic processes in nanostructure photovoltaics. J Comput Electron 15, 1219–1232 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10825-016-0877-3

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