Photoconductive sensitivity

West, W. Correlations between photographic and photoconductance sensitivity of silver halides.. Mitchell, J. W. Fundamental mechanisms of photographic sensitivity, p. 99. London Butterworth s Sci. Publ. 1951. 

Most of the modern theories of the photoconductivity sensitization consider that local electron levels play the decisive role in filling up the energy deficit The photogeneration of the charge carriers from these local levels is an essential part of the energy transfer model. Regeneration of the ionized sensitizer molecule due to the use of the carriers on the local levels takes place in the electron transfer model. The existence of the local levels have now been proved for practically all sensitized photoconductors. The nature of these levels has to be established in any particular material. A photosensitivity of up to 1400 nm may be obtained for the known polymer semiconductors. There are a lot of sensitization models for different types of photoconductors and these will be examined in the corresponding sections. 

As already shown, the sensitized spectra follow the dye absorption. Most of the dyes have sufficiently narrow absorption bands. This does not permit us to obtain the panchromatic sensitivity in the sufficiently broad spectral range. It was proposed to use the polymers with conjugated bonds as sensitizers [21]. The broad diffuse absorption spectra are inherent to such compounds. One can expect higher thermal stability from such sensitizers. In addition the application of binder may be omitted from the preparation of the photosensitive layers, for example, in electrophotography. Polymers with triple bonds, polyphenylenes and polyoxiphenylenes were used as sensitizers [10, 14, 278-280]. The typical results are shown in Fig. 47. The main rules for photoconductivity sensitized by polymers were the same as for the dyes. Optimum sensitization was obtained at the concentration of the sensitizer of 10 1-10-2 g/cm3 relative to the polymeric photoconductor weight. 

The polysdanes are normally electrical insulators, but on doping with AsF or SbF they exhibit electrical conductivity up to the levels of good semiconductors (qv) (98,124). Conductivities up to 0.5 (H-cm) have been measured. However, the doped polymers are sensitive to air and moisture thereby making them unattractive for practical use. In addition to semiconducting behavior, polysilanes exhibit photoconductivity and appear suitable for electrophotography (qv) (125—127). Polysdanes have also been found to exhibit nonlinear optical properties (94,128). 

Recently photorefractivity in photoconductive polymers has been demonstrated (92—94). The second-order nonlinearity is obtained by poling the polymer doped with a nonlinear chromophore. Such a polymer may or may not be a good photoconductor. Usually sensitizers have to be added to enhance the charge-generation efficiency. The sensitizer function of fuUerene in a photorefractive polymer has been demonstrated (93). 

Fig. 9. Spectral sensitivity of detectors where the detector temperatures in K are in parentheses, and the dashed line represents the theoretical limit at 300 K for a 180° field of view, (a) Detectors from near uv to short wavelength infrared (b) lead salt family of detectors and platinum siUcide (c) detectors used for detection in the mid- and long wavelength infrared. The Hg CdTe, InSb, and PbSnTe operate intrinsically, the doped siUcon is photoconductive, and the GaAs/AlGaAs is a stmctured supedattice and (d) extrinsic germanium detectors showing the six most popular dopants.

Exposure and latent image formation. The sensitized photoreceptor is exposed to a light and dark image pattern in the light areas the surface potential of the photoconductor is reduced due to a photoconductive discharge. Since current can only flow perpendiculai to the surface, this step produces an electrostatic-potential distribution which replicates the pattern of the image. 

Quenching of the Intersystem Crossing to the Triplet State 521 Photoinduced 1RAV Studies 522 Time-Resolved Photoinduced Studies 524 Sensitization of Photoconductivity 525 Magnetic Properties 526... 

Hoyer P, Konenkamp R (1995) Photoconduction in porous HO2 sensitized by PbS quantum dots. Appl Phys Lett 66 349-351... 

Materials that exhibit photoconductivity and/or electrooptical response can be found in large numbers among molecular glasses (Fig. 3.40). Dihydropyridines with Tg 25 C and low tendency of crystallization have been used (e.g., 2BNCM, 73), adding only a small fraction of a binding polymer (<10%), and 2,4,7-trinitro-9-fluorenone (TNF) as a sensitizer [310]. A common strategy is... 

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