Extended (1.1-2.9 eV) hot-carrier-induced photon emission in n-channel Si MOSFETs

An extended set of experimental data obtained analyzing the spectrum of the light emitted by n-MOSFETs operating at different biases and temperatures is presented. The analysis has been performed in a wide energy range (1.07-2.88 eV). The results suggest that the low- and high-energy parts of the photon distribution may be dominated by different emission mechanisms: electron-hole recombination and bremsstrahlung of hot electrons, respectively. This interpretation is confirmed by the comparison between the measured photon energy distribution and the calculated by Monte Carlo simulations. This comparison leads to the observation that the high-energy tail of the photon distribution reproduces the main features of the hot-electron tail.<
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