A novel approach to the surface photovoltage method

The surface photovoltage technique allows contactless measurement of some electrical parameters of semiconductors. Unfortunately, a contemporaneous approach to steady-state Surface photovoltaic (SPV) effect cannot explain the photovoltage spectra, and its application to the determination of the diffusion length is limited to thick samples with thin space charge region (SCR). In this paper a complete theory of steady-state SPV effect is presented that agrees well with the experiment. Consequently, important parameters can be evaluated from the measurements independently of thickness and resistivity of samples. The use of the theory for determining the diffusion length and thickness of the SCR is shown. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.