Meyer–Neldel rule for dark current in charge-coupled devices

We present the results of a systematic study of the dark current in each pixel of a charged-coupled device chip. It was found that the Arrhenius plot, at temperatures between 222 and 291 K, deviated from a linear behavior in the form of continuous bending. However, as a first approximation, the dark...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of applied physics 2001-06, Vol.89 (12), p.8179-8182
Main Authors: Widenhorn, Ralf, Mündermann, Lars, Rest, Armin, Bodegom, Erik
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
ACTIVATION ENERGY
BENDING
CHARGE-COUPLED DEVICES
CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS
PHYSICS
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Summary:We present the results of a systematic study of the dark current in each pixel of a charged-coupled device chip. It was found that the Arrhenius plot, at temperatures between 222 and 291 K, deviated from a linear behavior in the form of continuous bending. However, as a first approximation, the dark current, D, can be expressed as: D=D0 exp(−ΔE/kT), where ΔE is the activation energy, k is Boltzmann’s constant, and T the absolute temperature. It was found that ΔE and the exponential prefactor D0 follow the Meyer–Neldel rule (MNR) for all of the more than 222,000 investigated pixels. The isokinetic temperature, T0, for the process was found as 294 K. However, measurements at 313 K did not show the predicted inversion in the dark current. It was found that the dark current for different pixels merged at temperatures higher than T0. A model is presented which explains the nonlinearity and the merging of the dark current for different pixels with increasing temperature. Possible implications of this finding regarding the MNR are discussed.
ISSN:0021-8979
1089-7550
DOI:10.1063/1.1372365