Abstract
The theory of the thermopower in bipolar semiconductor samples is developed taking into account the bending of the energy band near the semiconductor surface. The boundary conditions at the real metal- semiconductor junction and the nonequilibrium space charge appearing near the sample surface are taken into consideration. The model is constructed in the linear approximation in the temperature gradient, i.e., at a small deviation of the carrier density from equilibrium in the sample bulk. It is shown that the dependence of the thermopower on the temperature difference between the heater and cooler can become nonlinear at certain surface parameters and thicknesses of the semiconductor.
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Original Russian Text © A. Konin, 2009, published in Fizika i Tekhnika Poluprovodnikov, 2009, Vol. 43, No. 5, pp. 632–635.
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Konin, A. Nonlinear thermopower in bipolar semiconductor samples. Semiconductors 43, 604–607 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1063782609050121
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1063782609050121