Contactless microwave study of dispersive transport in thin film CdSe

The contactless microwave technique was used to measure light-induced transients in the power absorbed by thin films of polycrystalline CdSe. Because the rise time of the microwave cavity was 60 ns, the analysis was limited to 100 ns or longer. Measurement of these transients at a number of fixed frequencies across the ''dark'' resonance frequency made reconstruction of the difference signal possible. This signal, which represents the difference between the ''dark'' and ''light'' Lorentz resonance curves, was determined at various times during the decay. Analysis of these signals provided the time dependence for the changes in the real and imaginary parts of the dielectric constant, which correspond to the densities of the trapped and free electrons. The decays of these parameters were characterized by three time domains. At the shortest times, the two parameters did not have the same time dependence. At intermediate times, the densities of both the trapped and free electrons had the same time dependence characterized by a power law decay, and a mechanism consistent with these results involves rapid equilibration between the free electrons and those in the shallow traps. Decay in this region was consistent with a dispersive transport mechanism. Intensity effects indicate saturation of the shallow traps. The third region occurred at the break in the power law dependence indicating a bimolecular recombination process. Measurements at higher temperatures indicate a change from a bimolecular to a monomolecular recombination mechanism. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.