Solid State Electronic Devices, 7th Edition

8.1 Photodiodes

In Section 4.3.4 we saw We know that bulk semiconductor samples can be used as photoconductors by providing a change in conductivity proportional to an optical generation rate. Often, junction devices can be used to improve the speed of response and the sensitivity of detectors of optical or high-​energy radiation. Two-​terminal devices designed to respond to photon absorption are called photodiodes. Some photodiodes have extremely high sensitivity and response speed. Since modern electronics often involves optical as well as electrical signals, photodiodes serve important functions as electronic devices. In this section, we shall investigate the response of p-​n junctions to optical generation of electron–​hole pairs (EHPs) and ...