Surface photovoltage measurements on cadmium sulfide

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Abstract

Surface photovoltage measurements on conducting crystals of cadmium sulfide show that, at equilibrium, there is a difference in potential between the surface and the bulk of 0.2 to 0.3 eV. This is due to adsorbed oxygen which forms charged acceptor states on the surface. The adsorption is a reversible process and the oxygen may be removed by replacing the air ambient with an inert gas such as nitrogen. The density of charged surface states on typical conducting crystals is 1 × 1011 per cm2. On high resistance photoconducting crystals there is no detectable density of charged surface states. There is, however, a measurable photovoltage which is apparently due to the Dember effect. A model is proposed for the surface states which accounts for the observed behavior.

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