Free Carrier Absorption Arising from Impurities in Semiconductors

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Abstract
The free carrier absorption due to ionized impurities in semiconductors is essentially the inverse process of bremsstrahlung. The cross section for bremsstrahlung is readily available in the literature and one can calculate the spectral distribution of bremsstrahlung for the carriers in a semiconductor; furthermore, by using Kirchhoff's law of radiation, relating the emission and absorption in the semiconductor, one arrives quite easily at the absorption coefficient. The results so obtained agree with those of previous authors who have used a different method of calculation. The inadequacy of the Born approximation in the calculation of the ionized impurity effects on free carrier absorption is brought out clearly in the present treatment.