NOC: Fundamentals of electronic materials and devices

Assignment 7

The assignment consists of two sections A and B. In section A, each question

carries one mark, while in section B, each question carries two marks.

Section A (10 marks)

1. In lasers, the number of carriers in the excited state must be higher

than the ground state. This is called .
Ans: population inversion

2. In a laser, the radiation must be confined to the active region and

reflected by inactive regions. This is called

(a) waveguiding
(b) reflectivity
(c) Fabry Perot resonator
(d) stimulated emission

Ans: (a)

3. Photocurrent in the solar cell is due to

(a) Lowering of barrier height for diffusion upon optical absorption

(b) Drift of minority carriers generated during absorption
(c) Diffusion of generated carriers
(d) Forward bias

Ans: (b)

4. Which of the following does not change with the dimension of the solar
cell?

(a) Photogenerated current

(b) Reverse saturation current
(c) Open circuit voltage
(d) Power output of the cell

Ans: (c)

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5. The open circuit potential in a solar cell (increases/decreases)
with increasing band gap of the material, for the same incident power.
Ans: increases

6. Which of the following techniques may be used to enhance crystalline

solar cells efficiency?

(a) Increasing number of grains in the absorber material

(b) Surface passivation to prevent carrier trapping
(c) Forming a tandem architecture by positioning lower band gap over
the higher band gap absorber layers
(d) Both (b) and (c)

Ans: (b)

7. Open circuit potential (in a solar cell) is

(a) the only voltage value at which the power output is zero
(b) equal to built-in potential of the diode
(c) the potential across the diode when the current in the external
circuit is the highest
(d) the largest forward bias potential below which photocurrent can
be collected in the external circuit

Ans: (d)

8. Which of the following electron transitions in semiconductors can be

used for applications in photodetectors

(a) Transition from valence band to the Fermi level

(b) Transition from defect state to the conduction band
(c) Transition from the lowest energy level in metal to the semicon-
ductor in a Schottky junction
(d) Transition from conduction band to valence band

Ans: (b)

9. Internal photoemission is as a result of

(a) excitation of electron from valence band to conduction band of

the semiconductor

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 (b) excitation of electron from lower energy levels in metals to the
conduction band of the semiconductor
(c) excitation of electron from highest energy level in metal to the
conduction band of the semiconductor
(d) drift of electrons due to built-in electric field

Ans: (c)

10. The two metal contacts of a photoconductor are usually

(a) Ohmic, Schottky

(b) Schotkky, Schottky
(c) Ohmic, Ohmic
(d) depends on the semiconductor

Ans: (c)

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Section B (10 marks)

1. Light of wavelength 800 nm is incident on a thin film of Si with thick-

ness 1 µm. The incident energy density is 1 mJcm−2 . The no. of
photons that are emitted from the other side of the thin film is ap-
proximately . Give your answer per cm2 . Take the
absorption coefficient of Si at 800 nm to be 106 m−1 .
(a) 1014 (b) 1015 (c) 1016 (d) 1017
Ans: (b)
Convert the incident energy into no. of photons, Γ = I/(hc/λ). Then
you can use Beer Lambert’s law to calculate the no. of photons that
are emitted.
2. Consider n-type Si, with dopant concentration 5 × 1015 cm−3 . It is
uniformly illuminated with light that creates 1021 electron-hole pairs
per second per cm3 (photon flux). The minority carrier life time is 50
ns. At steady state, the ratio of the no. of holes to the no. of electrons
is . ni for Si is 1010 cm−3 and temperature is 300 K.
(a) 4 × 10−12 (b) 10−5 (c) 0.01 (d) 1
Ans: (c)
At steady state, the number of extra holes is the flux times carrier
lifetime. Then you just have to take the ratio. There is also an increase
in the electron concentration, but this is negligible.
3. GaAs is a direct band gap semiconductor with band gap of 1.43 eV .
It is illuminated with a 50 mW HeNe laser (wavelength 630 nm).
The power that is dissipated in the sample, due to thermalization, is
. Give your answer in mW . Assume 100 % efficiency
in light absorption and emission.
(a) 13 (b) 27 (c) 38 (d) 50
Ans: (a)
This is similar to the problem solved in the worked assignment. The
energy lost due to thermalization is the difference between the energy
of the incident radiation and the band gap. The no. of incident photons
is the power by the energy of the laser radiation. These photons create
an equal no. of electrons, which all lose energy due to thermalization.
Hence, the power lost is
1.96 − 1.42
Power lost = (50 mW ) ( )
1.96
4. A simple photoconductor consists of a lightly doped p-type Si with ac-
ceptor concentration 1014 cm−3 . It is illuminated with light of intensity

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 1 mJ at wavelength of 400 nm. Assuming 80 % quantum efficiency,
the ratio of the conductivity under light illumination, with the conduc-
tivity in the absence of light is approximately . Take
2 −1 −1
electron mobility to be 1350 cm V s and hole mobility to be 450
cm2 V −1 s−1 . ni for Si is 1010 cm−3 and temperature is 300 K. Assume
uniform illumination and take the volume of the photoconductor to be
1 cm−3 .
(a) 0.65 (b) 65 (c) 6.5 × 104 (d) 6.5 × 106
Ans: (b)
Convert light intensity into no. of photons. Since the quantum effi-
ciency is only 80 % , the no. of electrons and holes produced are only
80 % of the no. of photons. Use this to calculate conductivity in the
presence of light and then the ratio.

5. Which of the following statements are true, as far as pn junction solar

cells are concerned?

(a) Polycrystalline pn junction cell is more efficient than single crystal

cell
(b) Single crystal Ge cell is better than single crystal Si cell.
(c) Cell efficiency increases with increasing band gap, so a ZnO single
crystal cell is better than a single crystal GaN cell
(d) Higher band gap is preferred due to higher power efficiency, but
the trade-off is that intensity absorbed is lowered.

Ans: (d)