Statistical comparisons of data on band-gap narrowing in heavily doped silicon: Electrical and optical measurements

A system of subroutines for iteratively reweighted least squares (IRLS) computations has been applied to the published measured and theoretical data on band-gap narrowing in heavily doped silicon. The data include electrical and optical measurements at room temperature, photoluminescence and optical measurements for temperatures below 35 K, and theoretical calculations at 300 and 0 K. The IRLS procedure allows a clear graphical comparison of the various experimental and theoretical data in band-gap narrowing to be made. The results are (1) band-gap changes determined by the optical absorption are consistent at both 300 K and at temperatures below 35 K with recent theoretical calculations, (2) the electrical and optical measurements are not consistent with each other, and (3) the low temperature optical absorption data and the photoluminescence data are not consistent with each other.