The Role of Non-Equilibrium Carriers in Formation of Thermo-E.M.F. in Bipolar Semiconductors

Abstract

A new approach to thermoelectric phenomena, as a linear transport process of non-equilibrium charge carriers, is presented. The role of non-equilibrium carriers, as well as surface and bulk recombination, is demonstrated to be crucial even within a linear approximation. Electron and hole Fermi quasi-levels appeared in a thermal field are calculated in the case of thermoelectric current flow through a circuit. It is shown, for the first time, that the Fermi quasi-level of one of subsystem of quasi-particles can be a non-monotonic function of the coordinates. General expressions for the thermoelectric current, thermo-e.m.f., and electrical resistance of bipolar semiconductors have been obtained. For the first time the surface recombination and surface resistance were taken into account.