Optically-Activated Gold-Compensated Silicon V-Groove P-I-N Diodes : I-Optical Gating Model

Simple physical and mathematical models of the optical switching of gold-compensated silicon p-i-n devices were developed using a single level approach (only the gold acceptor level was considered). The expressions for concentrations of electrons, holes, and negatively-charged and neutral gold acceptors were derived and calculated as a function of photon flux for three different cases of photon energy. A variation of switching voltage with photon flux was also calculated. These calculations showed clearly that the concentration of neutral gold acceptor and the hole lifetime increase with increasing photon flux, and thus the gold-compensated p-i-n device can be optically triggered, and the switching voltage can be easily controlled with photon energies larger than 0.55 eV. The maximum optical gating effect of gold-compensated silicon p-i-n devices will be obtained when the sample is closely compensated with gold and the light has a photon energy hv>1.12 eV as a optical source.