  Carrier recombination is a process that significantly influences the
performance of semiconductor devices such as solar cells, photodiodes, and
light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Therefore, a model that can accurately describe
and quantify the net carrier recombination rate in semiconductor devices is
important in order to further improve the performance of relevant semiconductor
devices. The conventional model for describing the net carrier recombination
rate is derived based on the condition that there is no electric current in the
considered semiconductor, which is true only when the semiconductor is not part
of a semiconductor device, and hence is not connected to an external circuit.
The conventional model is adopted and used for describing the net carrier
recombination rate in semiconductors that are part of devices (i.e. in
semiconductor devices). In this paper, we derive and propose a new model for
describing the net carrier recombination rate in semiconductor devices. The
newly proposed model is an improvement to the currently used model by
considering the fact that electric current can flow in the semiconducting
materials of semiconductor devices. We validate the proposed recombination
model and show that the use of the proposed model can be crucial for modeling
and analyzing the performance of optoelectronic devices such as solar cells and
LEDs.
