Electronic conduction in one dimension

Abstract

A theoretical study of the dependence on electric field E of the free-carrier trap time tau , the bound-carrier release time tau _b, and the probability phi of avoiding geminate recombination of optically created carrier pairs, is carried out for an ideally one-dimensional electronic system. The results are qualitatively different from those in a three-dimensional system. A critical field E_c=kT/ew exists, determined by the distance apart w of the traps, which for a pure system is a small field. For EE_c however, tau , tau _b and phi ^-1 vary as E^-1 and are controlled by carrier drift. This latter result has been put forward by separate authors for tau and phi before (Haarer and Mohwald, 1975; Haberkorn and Michel-Beyerle, 1973 and Blossey, 1974). The paper extends their results, and also shows how they are related to each other. For fields large enough to saturate the drift velocity, tau again becomes independent of field.