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Nonuniform current‐carrier mobility‐induced bulk photovoltaic effect in bounded semiconductors
Author(s) -
Volovichev I. N.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
physica status solidi (b)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1521-3951
pISSN - 0370-1972
DOI - 10.1002/pssb.201552008
Subject(s) - photocurrent , anomalous photovoltaic effect , semiconductor , electron mobility , materials science , optoelectronics , electron , photoconductivity , photovoltaic effect , current (fluid) , diffusion , short circuit , drift current , photovoltaic system , diffusion current , condensed matter physics , physics , electrical engineering , voltage , quantum mechanics , engineering , thermodynamics
The photo‐emf and the short‐circuit photocurrent in a closed circuit consisting of a bipolar semiconductor with uniform electron and hole dark densities, but inhomogeneous electron mobility is theoretically studied with emphasis on the influence of the boundary conditions on the photo‐emf magnitude. It is shown that the photocurrent vanishes in the closed circuit when the entire semiconductor is uniformly illuminated, while the presence of a metal region in the circuit enables the photocurrent generation. The functional dependence of the photo‐emf on the sample size and the current‐carrier diffusion length is investigated. The physics of the effect and its relation to the Dember photoeffect and the bulk photovoltaic effect is also discussed.