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The nature of the high-voltage photo-emf in thin semiconductor layers

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Soviet Physics Journal Aims and scope

Abstract

We have shown in [1] that in pyramidal crystals of semiconductors with linear dimensions of the order of a micron it is possible for a photodiffusion-emf of ∼0.025 V to arise.

In this paper a mechanism of producing a high-voltage photo-emf in thin layers of semiconductors is proposed and discussed, the value of which considerably exceeds the width of the forbidden zone of the semiconductor in question, starting from the concept of the series connection of a large number of such elements. Despite the fact that this phenomenon was discovered quite long ago [2], its nature has not been finally cleared up.

A photo-emf of ∼10 + 100 V over a 1-cm length of the film at room temperature is found in CdTe [2], Sb2S3, Sb2Se3 [3], Ge, Si [4, 5], PbS [6], GaAs [7], and ZnS [8].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Moscow Technology Institute for the Meat and Dairy Industries, USSR

    N. F. Kovtonyuk & V. F. Fedonin

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  1. N. F. Kovtonyuk
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  2. V. F. Fedonin
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Kovtonyuk, N.F., Fedonin, V.F. The nature of the high-voltage photo-emf in thin semiconductor layers. Soviet Physics Journal 10, 24–26 (1967). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00821994

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