Determination of the diffusion length of the minority carriers in electron-beam-excited n-type GaAs

The spectral intensity distribution of the spontaneous emission from n-type GaAs excited by an electron beam is calculated from the theory of recombination statistics of injected carriers by assuming arbitrary values of the diffusion length of the minority carriers and by using the optical absorption data as reportert in the literature. The exact value of the diffusion length is then shown to be accurately determined by comparing the distribution curves calculated with the emission spectra as experimentally observed elsewhere. The accuracy of the determination of the diffusion length by the procedure suggested here is expected to be very high.