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Understanding the radiative and non-radiative properties of semiconductor materials is a prerequisite for optimizing the performance of existing light emitters and detectors and for developing new device architectures based on novel materials. Due to the ever increasing complexity of novel semiconductor systems and their relative technological immaturity, it is essential to have design tools and simulation strategies that include the details of the microscopic physics and their dependence on the macroscopic (continuum) variables in the macroscopic device models. Towards this end, we have developed a robust full-band structure based approach that can be used to study the intrinsic material radiative and non-radiative properties and evaluate the same characteristics of low-dimensional device structures. A parallel effort is being carried out to model the effect of substrate driven stress/strain and material quality (dislocations and defects) on microscopic quantities such as non-radiative recombination rate. Using this modeling approach, we have extensively studied the radiative and non-radiative properties of both elemental (Si and Ge) and compound semiconductors (HgCdTe, InGaAs, InAsSb and InGaN). In this work we outline the details of the modelling approach, specifically the challenges and advantages related to the use of the full-band description of the material electronic structure. We will present a detailed comparison of the radiative and Auger recombination rates as a function of temperature and doping for HgCdTe and InAsSb that are two important materials for infrared detectors and emitters. Furthermore we will discuss the role of non-radiatiave Auger recombination processes in explaining the performance of light emitter diodes. Finally we will present the extension of the model to low dimensional structures employed in a number of light emitter and detector structures.
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