Note on the Reduction of Carrier Lifetime in p-n Junction Diodes by Electron Bombardment

Commercial encapsulated silicon p-n junction diodes were bombarded by 2 Mev electrons from a Van de Graaff generator. The reverse transient current and the static I–V characteristics of the junction were measured before and after varying intervals of the bombardment time. The time dependence of the reverse transient current is in close agreement with theory, and the reciprocal of the minority carrier lifetime, as inferred from these data, is found to be a linear function of the bombardment time. The bombardment also produced marked changes in the static I–V characteristics of the diodes. These data are not in agreement with simple p-n junction theory. A suggested explanation is that the diode behavior is generally similar to that of a p-i-n junction.