Photoemission from Silicon Photodiodes and Induced Changes in the Detection Efficiency in the Far Ultraviolet

Photoemission from semiconductor photodiodes exists as a spurious effect in the detection of radiation in the far ultraviolet. The magnitude of this photoemission effect in silicon transfer standards has been measured and found to be significant in the spectral region from 5 nm to 165 nm. The efficiency of these photodiodes in the more conventional semiconducting mode was altered by this photoemission as much as 14% under some conditions of operation. Application configurations which virtually eliminate the influences of photoemission have been identified and should be employed. The possibility of using these photodiodes in a photoemissive mode (as solar-blind detectors) was found to be limited by the temporal instability and spatial uniformity of the devices tested.