The paper presents experimental results of the lifetime of light induced excess carriers in the n-type silicon. The lifetimes of carriers of silicon crystals were analysed as a function of the intensity of light illuminating the sample. As a measurement method of the lifetime of carriers, the photoacoustic method in a transmission configuration with different surfaces was used. The dependence character was next analysed in the frame of the Shockley Reed Hall statistics in approximation of the light low intensity.

The operation of narrow-gap semiconductor devices under non-equilibrium mode is used at temperatures where the materials are normally intrinsic. The phenomenon of minority carrier exclusion and extraction was particularly discussed in the case of the suppression of Auger thermal generation in heterojunction photodiodes, especially important in the long-wave infrared range. This paper shows that the reduction of the dark current in the HgCdTe photodiode operating in the mid-wave infrared range is primarily the result of suppression of the Shockley-Read-Hall generation in the non-equilibrium absorber. Under a reverse bias, the majority carrier concentration is held equal to the majority carrier doping level. This effect also leads to a decreased majority carrier population at the trap level and an effective increase in the carrier lifetime. The analysed device was with the following design: p+-Bp cap-barrier unit, p-type absorber doped at the level of 8 ·1015 cm−3, and wide-bandgap N+ bottom contact layer. At room temperature, the lowest dark current density of 3.12 ·10−1 A/cm2 was consistent with the theoretically predicted Shockley-Read-Hall suppression mechanism, about two times smaller than for the equilibrium case.