The Carriers Temperature as a New Parameter for Characterization

This work presents a comparison between the carriers temperature and the lattice temperature for an operating silicon p-n junction. An experimental study of the temperature dependence of p-n junction current-voltage characteristics leads to an experimental determination of the carriers temperature. The difference between the carriers temperature and the lattice temperature is due especially to the carrier-lattice interactions, the carrier-carrier interactions and the thermal expansion effect. The introduction of the carriers temperature as a new parameter for characterization is used to study the temperature dependence of the energy gap and to determine the value of the energy band gap at 0 K. Quasi linearity of the energy gap dependence versus the carriers temperature is observed.