Measurements of the Average Energy Per Electron-Hole Pair Generation in Silicon between 5-320°K

The average energy expended to create an electron-hole pair in silicon ¿Si(T) has been measured in the 5-320°K temperature range with thin totally depleted surface barrier and diffused junction radiation detectors. The data have been normalized to a value of ¿Si (300°K) = 3.62 eV. A dependence of ¿Si on T much weaker than previously published by other authors has been observed. In the examined temperature range (5-320°K) our data are well fitted by ¿si(T) = 2.15 Eg(T) + 1.21 eV where Eg(T) (in eV) is the value of the forbidden bandgap.