Time Dependent Changes in Excess Carrier Concentrations in the Presence of Surface Recombination

Abstract

A system is considered in which a thin slab of semiconductor, of infinite bulk lifetime, is initially in equilibrium and is then subjected to a uniform excitation throughout the bulk. The case in which surface recombination takes place via Shockley-Read centres has been treated, and the time dependence of the transient change in carrier concentrations has been evaluated under certain approximations for the case of germanium, as a function of surface potential. The time constants differ from the steady-state lifetime except in the case of low trap densities.