Anomalous low temperature ambipolar diffusion and Einstein relation

TL;DR

This paper generalizes the Einstein relation for electron-hole plasma in semiconductors, explaining low-temperature anomalies in ambipolar diffusion through interaction effects.

Contribution

It introduces a generalized Einstein relation accounting for interactions, Debye-Huckel correlations, and exchange effects in non-degenerate plasma.

Findings

Deviation from regular Einstein relation at low temperatures

Explains experimentally observed ambipolar diffusion anomalies

Provides theoretical framework for interacting electron-hole plasma

Abstract

Regular Einstein relation, connecting the coefficient of ambipolar diffusion and the Dember field with mobilities, is generalized for the case of interacting electron-hole plasma. The calculations are presented for a non-degenerate plasma injected by light in semiconductors of silicon and germanium type. The Debye-Huckel correlation and the Wigner-Seitz exchange terms are considered. The corrections to the mobilities of carriers due to difference between average and acting electric fields within the electron-hole plasma is taken into account. The deviation of the generalized relation from the regular Einstein relation is pronounced at low temperatures and can explain anomaly of the coefficient of ambipolar diffusion, recently discovered experimentally.