A model for steady-state photoconductivity in amorphous selenium

Abstract

The photoconductivity of amorphous selenium varies linearly with light intensity. This result cannot be interpreted by the classical mechanism of electron-hole pair generation followed by recombination through gap states. We assume that the incident photons create photoinduced defects whose structure is IVAP-like. The optical or thermal excitation of those defects yields the photoconductivity. In this model, the theoretical photocurrent is proportional to light intensity as observed.