Bias-voltage- and bias-light-dependent high photocurrent gains in amorphous silicon Schottky barriers

Abstract

Experimental results of very large, long-wavelength photocurrent gains in amorphous silicon-based Schottky barrier structures are reported. It is shown that these occur for devices in the space-charge current regime operated at forward bias voltages past the flatband condition. The analysis of microelectronic and photonic structures computer program is used to show that these high gains are due to hole trapping and the resulting modulation of the virtual cathode barrier potential at the ohmic contact. As demonstrated, these gains are bias voltage, bias light, monochromatic light intensity, material property, and device thickness dependent. This type of photocurrent gain is another photogating effect and is much different than the usual bulk photoconductive gain.

Calculation of the position-dependent inner collection efficiency in PIN solar cells using an electrical–optical model

“…(3) is the hole current at x ¼ 0 due to the generation, Gðx i Þ, at x i . The second term is the extra BL hole current at x ¼ 0 (if any) due to the now well-known 'photogating effect' [9][10][11], where n k represents different parameters, a change of which may give rise to this effect, such as the electric field, n=i potential barrier, etc. But for PDICEðx i Þ to be calculated from Eq.…”

Hybrid organic-inorganic photoconductive diode

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Application of a-Si:H radiation detectors in medical imaging

“…The tunneling rate (e,)Tu for one-dimensional Dirac potential well was derived by Korol and is given by [12] where …”

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