Characteristics of Junctions in Germanium

Abstract

Infrared radiation has been used to obtain a direct measure of the added carrier concentrations immediately adjacent to a junction when a current was passing through it. The current versus carrier density characteristics thus determined can provide sensitive tests of junction theory. For junctions between two highly doped germanium regions and low injection levels, the experimental results agree with existing theory. For these junctions and high injection levels, or for junctions between regions where one or both sides may be lightly doped and for arbitrary levels of injection, it is necessary to extend the theory. This is done by extending the boundary conditions for higher levels of injection and using the current equations in the ambipolar form, where the field as well as the diffusion currents are considered. The resulting current versus carrier density relationship involves the total current and takes into account, for both sides of the junction, the change in conductivity with injection level and the change in the drift length with the applied electric field. If, in addition, the change in lifetime with injection level is taken into consideration, good agreement obtains between experiment and theory. Current-voltage relationships are also derived which contain the above mentioned improvements.