%0 Journal Article
%T p-n Junction Photocurrent Modelling Evaluation under Optical and Electrical Excitation
%A Constantine T. Dervos
%A Panayotis D. Skafidas
%A John A. Mergos
%A Panayota Vassiliou
%J Sensors
%D 2004
%I MDPI AG
%R 10.3390/s40500058
%X Based upon the quasi-equilibrium approximation, the validity of p-n junction modelling, has been experimentally investigated under synchronous electrical and optical excitation of silicon photo-diodes. The devices had areas of 8.2 mm2 and reverse bias saturation currents of the order of 10-10 A. Their current-voltage (I-V) response was exploited experimentally both in the dark and under various illumination levels. The quoted values for the saturation current, the ideality factor, the series resistance and the reverse-bias photocurrent are investigated for the simulation of the I-V curves via the quasi-equilibrium model. In addition, the measured I-V data have been further analysed to estimate the produced photocurrent as a function of the applied bias (forward or reverse) under given illumination levels. Comparisons between the simulated curves and the experimental data allowed a detailed photocurrent modelling validation. The proposed approach could be useful towards studying other parameters of optically activated p-n junctions such as: the bias dependence of the minority carrier diffusion lengths and/or the generated rates of electron-hole pairs (EHP).
%K Semiconductor applications
%K photovoltaics
%K p-n junction modelling
%K photocurrent
%U http://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/4/5/58