Phonon-assisted optical absorption in silicon from first principles

Abstract

The phonon-assisted interband optical absorption spectrum of silicon is calculated at the quasiparticle level entirely from first principles. We make use of the Wannier interpolation formalism to determine the quasiparticle energies, as well as the optical transition and electron-phonon coupling matrix elements, on fine grids in the Brillouin zone. The calculated spectrum near the onset of indirect absorption is in very good agreement with experimental measurements for a range of temperatures. Moreover, our method can accurately determine the optical absorption spectrum of silicon in the visible range, an important process for optoelectronic and photovoltaic applications that cannot be addressed with simple models. The computational formalism is quite general and can be used to understand the phonon-assisted absorption processes in general.

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• Velocity Renormalization and Carrier Lifetime in Graphene from Electron-Phonon Interaction
• {\it Ab--initio} finite temperature excitons
• Momentum dependence of the electron-phonon coupling and self-energy effects in YBa_2Cu_3O_7 within the local density approximation

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• Real-space study of the optical absorption in alternative phases of silicon