Transition Probability for Photoelectric Emission from Semiconductors

Abstract

An adaptation of Makinson's theory of photoelectric emission from metals is used to treat simple one- and three-dimensional semiconductor models. The probability of excitation from a state of initial energy $\epsilon$ lying near ${\epsilon }_0$, the top of an occupied band, is found proportional to ${\epsilon }_0-\epsilon$. Thus, the transition probability vanishes at the top of the band. For a density of states having the normal form, $n\sim {({\epsilon }_0-\epsilon )}^{\frac{1}{2}}$, the energy distribution of the emitted electrons contains a factor ${({\epsilon }_0-\epsilon )}^{\frac{3}{2}}$ and is thus concave upward near the band edge.