Photon Emission from Avalanche Breakdown in Silicon
- 15 April 1956
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review B
- Vol. 102 (2), 369-376
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrev.102.369
Abstract
Visible light is emitted from reverse-biased silicon junctions at highly localized regions where avalanche breakdown is taking place. The emission occurs in both grown and diffused junctions. By using junctions diffused to a depth of only 2 microns below the crystal surface, it was established that the light sources are randomly spaced over the whole area of the junction as well as around the periphery where the junction intercepts the surface. The light sources are too small to be resolved under a high-power microscope. Their sites are reproducible with current cycling and their intensity and color are relatively insensitive to the field distribution, to the junction width, and to temperature. The number of light spots increases with the current rather than individual spots growing brighter. It is concluded that all the breakdown current is carried through the junction by these localized light-emitting spots.
Keywords
This publication has 4 references indexed in Scilit:
- Visible Light from a SiliconJunctionPhysical Review B, 1955
- Intrinsic Optical Absorption in Single-Crystal Germanium and Silicon at 77°K and 300°KPhysical Review B, 1955
- Theory of Electron Multiplication in Silicon and GermaniumPhysical Review B, 1954
- Avalanche Breakdown in SiliconPhysical Review B, 1954