Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mphil-in-micro-and-nanotechnology-enterprise-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2021/paper-1/9/ii/b/solution

forward bias opposes the built-in electric field and lowers the junction barrier from approximately to . In the abrupt-junction depletion approximation,
Thus the depletion region narrows and carriers cross the reduced barrier more readily. electron injection into the p side and hole injection into the n side increase strongly, allowing radiative recombination in an LED.
The injected minority-carrier concentrations, and therefore the ideal diffusion electric current, vary approximately as . This produces the steep forward branch of the electric current–voltage curve. One should not extrapolate the depletion-width formula to claim that the junction must lose its entire depletion region before conducting; appreciable electric current flows while a barrier remains, and high injection and series resistance eventually invalidate the simple formulas.

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