Light modulated microwave reflectivity measurements

In the case of light modulated microwave reflectivity measurements, is a linear function of the change in the photogenerated charge that accumulates at the semiconductor/electrolyte interface... 

If krec = 0, the photocurrent simply follows the illumination step and contains no information about the rate of charge transfer at the interface. The comparison shows that, unlike IMPS and PEIS, light modulated microwave reflectivity measurements still provide kinetic information at high band bending where recombination is negligible and the steady state photocurrent is described by the Gartner equation. 

Light and potential modulated microwave reflectivity measurements offer a novel approach to the study of the semiconductor electrolyte interface. Perturbation of the density of electrons and holes in a semiconductor influences the conductivity and hence the imaginary component of the dielectric constant at microwave frequencies. For small perturbations, the change ARm in microwave reflectivity depends linearly on the change in conductivity [27, 28, 75). The application of frequency response analysis to light modulated microwave reflectance is relatively new [30]. Although the technique is analogous to IMPS, it provides additional information. 

Schlichthorl et al. [177] have used light modulated microwave reflectivity to derive the rates of interfacial electron transfer processes at the n-Si/electrolyte interface. In these measurements, the modulation frequency was constant, and the rate constants for charge transfer were derived from the potential dependent ARm response. Schlichthorl et al. [73] have extended the technique considerably by introducing frequency response analysis. The technique is therefore analogous to IMPS, although, as shown below, it provides additional information. 

Fig. 21. Experimental set-up for light modulated microwave reflectance based on X-band microwave system [177]. The apparatus can also be used for IMPS measurements.

Figure 12.33 illustrates the set-up for LMMRS. The frequency response analyser replaces the single frequency lock-in amplifier used in the potential and light modulated microwave measurements described in Section 12.3. LMMRS detects the frequency-dependent modulation of the microwave reflectivity AR associated with the photogenerated minority carriers. This concentration decays by interfacial charge fransfer k d and recombination kKc)- The LMMRS response is therefore a semicircle with a characteristic frequency otam = + rec)- The low-frequency intercept of the... 

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