DIFFUSIVITY OF ELECTRONS AND HOLES IN SILICON

The variation of electron and hole diffusivity and drift velocity in the warm electron" range of electric field (1-50 kV/cm) has been measured for 〈111〉-oriented silicon at 300°K. These measurements were obtained from the transient currents produced from a thin layer of electrons or holes propagating through the high-field region of a reverse-biased p +-ν-n+ diode. Use of a sampling oscilloscope in conjunction with an analog-to-digital converter and averaging system resulted in significant improvement of the resolution and statistics of the measurement and allowed digital readout of the resulting data. Diffusivity of both electrons and holes was found to decrease slightly below the low-field values in the electric field range of 6-50 kV/cm. Drift velocity versus electric field was measured and found to be reasonably consistent with the literature. © 1969 The American Institute of Physics."