Minority carrier current

If minority carrier current (1BC, dotted line, symbols in Fig. 3.2) is detected at the collector, it can be concluded that the emitter is no sink for minorities. The absolute value of IEB depends not only on the charge state of the emitter-base junction and surface recombination velocity, but as well on bulk diffusion length and on sample thickness. However, the latter two parameters are constants for a given sample. 

This is the regime of cathodic currents. The silicon atoms of the electrode do not participate in the chemical reaction in this regime. An n-type electrode is under forward bias and the current is caused by majority carriers (electrons). The fact that photogenerated minority carriers (holes) are detectable at the collector indicates that the front is under flat band or accumulation. A decrease of IBC with cathodization time is observed. As Fig. 3.2 shows, the minority carrier current at the collector after switching to a cathodic potential is identical to that at VQcp in the first moment, but then it decreases within seconds to lower values, as indicated by arrows in Fig. 3.2. This can be interpreted as an increase of the surface recombination velocity with time under cathodic potential. It can be speculated that protons, which rapidly diffuse into the bulk of the electrode, are responsible for the change of the electronic properties of the surface layer [A17]. However, any other effect sufficient to produce a surface recombination velocity in excess of 100 cm s 1 would produce similar results. 

The maximum value of the minority-carrier current, which may flow under steady state conditions from the semiconductor bulk to the surface, is called the limiting current. It is determined by bulk generation of electron-hole pairs. As simple calculation shows (see, for example, Myamlin and Pleskov, 1967), the absolute value of the limiting current of minority carriers, holes for illustration, is... 

Let us note that secondary reactions, leading to the multiplication of the minority-carrier current, may also take place in darkness, which results, for example, in an increase of the maximum observed current, as compared to ipim. 

The current-voltage characteristics of an illuminated semiconductor electrode in contact with a redox electrolyte can be obtained by simply adding together the majority and minority current components. The majority carrier component is given by the diode equation (Eq. 17) while the minority carrier current (iph) is directly proportional to the photon flux (see, e.g., Eq. 24). Thus, the net current is given by... 

The minus sign in Eq. 27 underlines the fact that the majority-carrier component flows opposite to (or bucks ) the minority carrier current flow. This photocurrent component is shown as curves 2 and 3 in Figure 13. 

In principle the same derivation can be applied as that used in Section 2.2.3. The only difference is that the minority carrier current is not only determined by the hole injection and recombination in the n-type region but also by the injection of electrons into the p-type area. Thus, we now have instead of Eq. (2.31)... 

The bipolar junction transistor (BIT) consists of tliree layers doped n-p-n or p-n-p tliat constitute tire emitter, base and collector, respectively. This stmcture can be considered as two back-to-back p-n junctions. Under nonnal operation, tire emitter-base junction is forward biased to inject minority carriers into tire base region. For example, tire n type emitter injects electrons into a p type base. The electrons in tire base, now minority carriers, diffuse tlirough tire base layer. The base-collector junction is reverse biased and its electric field sweeps tire carriers diffusing tlirough tlie base into tlie collector. The BIT operates by transport of minority carriers, but botli electrons and holes contribute to tlie overall current. 

Under Httle or no illumination,/ must be minimized for optimum performance. The factor B is 1.0 for pure diffusion current and approaches 2.0 as depletion and surface-mode currents become important. Generally, high crystal quality for long minority carrier lifetime and low surface-state density reduce the dark current density which is the sum of the diffusion, depletion, tunneling, and surface currents. The ZM product is typically measured at zero bias and is expressed as RM. The ideal photodiode noise current can be expressed as follows ... 

When sunlight falls on a p—n junction solar cell while it is short-circuited, the magnitude of remains essentially the same as it was in darkness. Because the diffusion of majority current only varies with lA, the majority current does not change. However, additional minority carriers are formed by... 

Lp = D r ) is the minority carrier diffusion length for electrons in the -region, (0) is the minority carrier concentration at the boundary between the depletion layer and the neutral region. The sign of this equation indicates that electron injection into the -region results in a positive current flow from p to n a.s shown in Figure 7. 

Microwave power and its effect on the electrode/electrolyte interface, 439 Microwave region, Hall experiments, 453 Microwave spectroscopy, intensity modulated photo currents, 508 Microwave transients for nano crystalline desensitized cells, 514 Microwave transmission, as a function of magnetic field, 515 Minority carriers... 

A typical featnre of reactions involving the minority carriers are the limiting currents developing when the snrface concentration of these carriers has dropped to zero and they mnst be snpplied by slow dilfnsion from the bulk of the semiconductor. A reaction of this type, which has been stndied in detail, is the anodic dissolution of germanium. Holes are involved in the first step of this reaction Ge — Ge(II), and electrons in the second Ge(ll) —> Ge(IV). The overall reaction equation can be written as... 

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