Temperature dependence of the average electron-hole pair creation energy in Al0.8Ga0.2As

Abstract

The temperature dependence of the average energy consumed in the creation of an electron-hole pair in the wide bandgap compound semiconductor Al0.8Ga0.2As is reported following X-ray measurements made using an Al0.8Ga0.2As photodiode diode coupled to a low-noise charge-sensitive preamplifier operating in spectroscopic photon counting mode. The temperature dependence is reported over the range of 261 K–342 K and is found to be best represented by the equation εAlGaAs = 7.327–0.0077 T, where εAlGaAs is the average electron-hole pair creation energy in eV and T is the temperature in K.