Photoinduced electrification of solids. IV. Space charge effects assessed

Abstract

Our recent arXiv preprints have described the experimental evidence for the universal occurrence of short circuit photocurrents on illumination of solid state surfaces by strongly absorbed light. A likely mechanism has been proposed based on the photodesorption of surface ions to the surrounding atmosphere. Analyses have been made of observed oscilloscope tracings of short circuit photo voltages in terms of the linear rate theory in fair concomitance. Space charge effects having been left unaccounted for, we now propose an approach to them in the diffusion-free approximation.