Photovoltaic effect and its polarity in Si doping superlattices

• Published in: Applied physics letters Vol. 63; no. 13; pp. 1777 - 1779
• Main Authors: LUO, C. P, JIANG, D. S, ZHUANG, W. H, LI, F, LI, Y. Z
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Melville, NY American Institute of Physics 27-09-1993
• Subjects: Condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties; Electrical properties of specific thin films; Electron states; Electronic structure and electrical properties of surfaces, interfaces, thin films and low-dimensional structures; Electronic transport in interface structures; Elemental semiconductors; Exact sciences and technology; Impurity and defect levels; Other semiconductor-to-semiconductor contacts, p-n junctions, and heterojunctions; Physics; Energy-level transitions; Photovoltaic effect; Semiconductor materials; Superlattices; Polarity; Shallow impurities; Silicon; Experimental study; nipi structure
• ISSN: 0003-6951; 1077-3118
• DOI: 10.1063/1.110659

We have studied the photovoltaic effects in Si doping superlattices (nipi) under different excitation conditions with and without additional cw optical biasing using a He-Ne laser. On the basis of the photovoltaic theory of carrier spatial separation in superlattices, we propose the concept of spatial fixity of the photovoltage polarity in type-II superlattices and examine the experimental results. The photovoltaic effect in Si nipi is found mainly from the direct transitions related with shallow impurities in real space, not the electron-hole band-to-band process as in GaAs nipi.