Temperature Dependence of Carrier Lifetime in Silicon

Abstract

Measurements of carrier lifetime have been made on both n- and p-type silicon crystals over the temperature range 0°C to 200°C. Results are given for both high and low values of injected carrier concentrations. A comparison is made with the Shockley-Read picture of carrier recombination. The results and theory may be reconciled on the assumption that the capture probabilities of the recombination centres are temperature dependent, and that the energy levels of the centres lie 0.45±0.05 eV above the valence band.