i read that si and germanium is not use for led, because in there when electron falls from CB to VB it dissipate 90% heat and 10% light. what is the reason that in GaAs, GaP, GaAlN etc. energy emitted in form of light?
LEDs are usually fabricated from compound semiconductor materials, such as gallium arsenide or gallium arsenide phosphide. These materials are direct-bandgap semiconductors.
They are semiconductors for which the minimum of the conduction band occurs at the same k, as the maximum of the valence band, have a stronger absorption of light as characterized by a larger absorption coefficient.They are usually favored when fabricating light emitting devices
Si is known to be an indirect semiconductor i.e. semiconductors for which the minimum of the conduction band does not occur at the same k as the maximum of the valence band, are known to have a smaller absorption coefficient and are rarely used in light emitting.
From Si's E vs k,we can see that when electron undergoes transition from conduction band to valence band,there is also a change of momentum unlike direct case where there was no change of momentum.
Phonons are emitted after recombination to conserve momentum in indirect semiconductors & it happens that phonons also have energy in addition to momentum & hence most of the energy from recombination in Si,ends up as heat