Thermopower profiling of a silicon p-n junction

Abstract

An ac type thermopower measurement technique was suggested and demonstrated with a simple experimental setup. The thermopower distribution across a silicon p-n junction was measured point by point at every 10 nm, so that it was free from the noise due to the built-in potential and photoionization effects, and it was compared with the theoretical result. Although this ac type thermopower measurement technique could not follow the sharp variation of the theoretical thermopower near the p-n junction, it could identify a smooth peak of the thermopower distribution in the depletion layer of the p-n junction. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.