Contactless measurement of recombination lifetime in photovoltaic materials

Contactless measurement of important semiconductor parameters has become the goal of current semiconductor diagnostics. Here we will describe an improved version of radiofrequency photoconductive decay operating in the ultra-high frequency (UHF) region. Previous work has referred to the general technique as UHF photoconductive decay. This work will show that the improved technique is capable of measuring samples ranging in size from submicron thin films to large silicon ingots. The UHF frequency region is an ideal compromise for volume penetration and lifetime resolution with system response or 10 ns or less. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.