PHOTOCONDUCTIVITY

OF
CdS PHOTOCELL
 SUBMITTED TO
Dr (Mrs.) S. M. Giripunje,
Assistant Professor
Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology

SUBMITTED BY
SANJAYANA SHENDE & SUHAILA C T
MSc. PHYSICS FIRST YEAR
2017-2019
VISVESVARAYA NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
 PHOTOCONDUCTI
VITY
CdS
PHOTORESISTOR
The increase in electrical conductivity caused by the excitation of
additional free charge carriers by light of sufficiently high energy
in semiconductors and insulators. Photoconductivity was first
observed in selenium by W. Smith (Great Britain) in 1873.
 HOW DOES PHOTOCONDUCITVITY OCCURS ?

Photoconductivity is the effect of increasing electrical

conductivity in a solid due to light absorption. When the
so-called internal photo effect takes
place, the energy absorbed enables the transition of activator
electrons into the conduction band
and the charge exchange of traps with holes being created in
the valence band. In the process,
the number of charge carriers in the crystal lattice
increases and as a result, the conductivity is
enhanced. To cause excitation of electrons , the light that
strikes the semiconductor must have enough
energy to raise electrons across the band gap.
photons cause
electrons to be ejected from the valence band and injected
into the conduction band
 EQUATION FOR PHOTOCONDUCTIVITY

Consider a simple model of photoconductor where it is irradiated by a

external light source. Then electron hole pairs are produced. And they
recombine in direct light source .thus
• rate of change of electron concentration is given by

dn / dt =L – A n p
=L – n2

•rate of change of hole concentration

dp / dt= L- A n p
=L - p2

L is the no. of photons absorbed per unit volume of the specimen per
unit time
and ‘Anp’ is the recombination rate of holes and electrons and
proportional to product of hole and electron concentrations A is
the proportionality constant.
 In the steady state,

Dn/dt=0 L-An 2=0

Thus electron concentration in the steady state is

n0 =√(L/A)
Thus associated photoconductivity is

σ = n0 e μ
μ
where is the electron mobility
this relation depicts that at a given voltage the photocurrent will vary with
light intensity as L 1/2
Decay of photoelectrons = dn/dt = - An2

dn/n2 =-A dt
solution = 1/n = At + c
Constant C can be calculated from the condition when the light was turned off at t
=0, n=n0 so C = 1/n0
Or
1/n =At + 1/n0
The carrier concentration should drop to 1/2 no in the time say t0

t0= 1/An0
= 1/√(LA)
= n0/L as n0 = √(L/A)
Combining two we get

t0 = σ /(Le μ )
where t0 is called the response time. Thus the elementary theory predicts that the
response time t0 should be directly proportional to the photoconductivity at a
given illumination level L.
Resistance decreases as light incident increases indicating that
photocurrent increases as illumination increases as the excited
electrons get more and more K E
 APPLICATIONS OF
PHOTOCONDUCTIVITY AND ITS DEVICES
Photo resistor
When a photoconductive material is connected as part of a
circuit, it functions as a resistor whose resistance depends
on the light intensity. In this context, the material is called
photo resistor and the most common application of photo
resistors is as photo detectors,
i.e. devices that measure light intensity
Light meters
TV cameras
Voltage regulators
Relays
Detecting ships and aircraft
 WHAT IS A PHOTORESISTOR?
symbol

Light dependent resistor LDR

Photoconductive cell
Used in light and dark activated switching circuits
Made up of high resistance (M ohms )semiconductor
Photo resistor in light has resistance of order few hundred
ohms
 photoelectric device
Photo resistors of two types:
1) Intrinsic -has its own charge carriers…..and is not
an efficient one since the incident must have
enough energy to excite the electrons
e.g. : silicon

2) Extrinsic - have impurities and its ground state

energy is closer to the conduction band and
hence low energy photos are sufficient to
trigger the device
e.g.: phosphorous added in silicon
A cadmium-sulfide (CdS) photo resistor (or photo
cell) is a device that changes resistance depending on
light intensity. It's sensitive, fast, and has been
around for decades Their resistance decreases as the
light level increases with efficiency characteristics
similar to the human eye. So It's often used in street
lights and as an "electric eye These light dependent
resistors are available in a wide range of resistance
values. They are packaged in a two leaded plastic-
coated ceramic header.
 Applications of CdS
oUsed in street lights as automatic on/off
switches. when the surrounding light falls
on the photo resistor, it causes the streetlight
to turnoff. When there is no light, the photo
resistor causes the street light to turn on.
This reduces the wastage of electricity.

oThey are also used in various devices such

as alarm devices, solar street lamps, night-
lights, and clock radios.
Relative sensitivity of CdS to different
wavelengths(spectral response)
 ADVANTAGES AND
DISADVANTAGES
advantages disadvantages
Small size, Accuracy is very low

Low cost, easily available They cannot be used to determine

precise light levels

Easy to carry from one place to Very slow for sensitive

another place applications.

Easy to design and implement

them in a circuitry
 AIM
I. To study the Photoconductivity of
CdS photo-resistor at constant
irradiance and constant voltage
II. . To plot the current- voltage
characteristics at constant
irradiance.
III.To measure photocurrent IPh as a
function of irradiance at constant
voltage
1.Lamp housing,
2. adjustable slit
3. polarizer
4. analyzer,
5.two convex lens
6.photo resistor
7.multimeter
8.an optical bench with fixing
mounts.
 BLOCK DIAGRAM OF
EXPERIMENTAL SET UP
EXPERIMENTAL SET UP
 EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE
INITIAL ADJUSTMENTS
1. Mount the lamp housing (H), adjustable slit self-centering (A), polarizer (P1),
analyzer (P2),
lens (L1), and photo-resistor (R) on the optical bench as shown in Fig.2.
2. Connect the leads of the lamp housing to the power supply (0-12V AC/DC, 5A)
and apply
10V AC to the lamp.
3. Adjust the height of the lamp housing, adjustable slit self-centering, polarizer,
analyzer,
lens and photo-resistor such that all of them lie on the same optical axis.
4. Make the connections to the photo-resistor and multi-meter as shown in Fig. 2.
5. Initially set the polarizer and analyzer at 0°.
6. Adjust the lamp, lens and photo-resistor so that a homogeneous ray of light
illuminates the
photo-resistor.
7. Set the voltage of DC power supply (0-16V DC, 5A) to 20V.
8. Adjust the width of the self centering adjustable slit so that a current of about
9mA flows
through the photo-resistor. Keep the width of the slit fixed for rest of the
experiment.
 a) Measuring photocurrent IPh as a function of voltage U at a
constant irradiance

1. Set the analyzer at 0° mark provided on the analyzer scale.

2. Interrupt the path of the ray of light, and determine the

photocurrent I(0°) due to the residual lightness.

3. Starting from 20V, reduce the voltage U to 0V in steps of 2V.

Measure the photocurrent IPh, each time and record it.

4. Repeat the series of measurements with α at 30°, 60°, and 90° .

b) Measuring photocurrent IPh as a function
of irradiance at a constant voltage U:

1. Set the voltage U to 16 V, interrupt

the path of the ray of light and
measure the
photocurrent I˳ due to the residual
lightness.

2. In order to vary the irradiance ,

increase the angle α between the
polarization planes of the filters in
steps of 10° from 0° to 90°. Measure
 Observation tables
Table 1:The photocurrent IPh as a function of the voltage U at a constant
irradiance

U (Volt) IPh at 0° (mA) IPh at 30° (mA) IPh at 60° (mA) IPh at 90° (mA)

16 0.90 0.67 0.32 0.09

12 0.76 0.59 0.27 0.07

14 0.63 0.50 0.23 0.06

10 0.50 0.40 0.18 0.04

8 0.42 0.31 0.14 0.03

6 0.30 0.21 0.08 0.02

4 0.19 0.13 0.04 -0.01

2 0.08 0.05 -0.02 -0.04

 Table 2:The photocurrent IPh as a function of irradiance at a constant voltage
U

α (angle in cos2α IPh at 16V IPh at 12V IPh at 8V (mA)

degree ) (mA) (mA)
0 1.00 0.85 0.66 0.40
10 0.97 0.79 0.65 0.36
20 0.88 0.75 0.58 0.33
30 0.75 0.64 0.50 0.29
40 0.59 0.53 0.39 0.24
50 0.41 0.40 0.28 0.17
60 0.25 0.27 0.19 0.11
70 0.12 0.17 0.12 0.06
80 0.03 0.10 0.07 0.03
90 0.00 0.09 0.06 0.03
 ANALYSIS OF DATA
a) The photocurrent IPh as a function of voltage U at a constant
irradiance :
The relation between the photocurrent IPh and the voltage U applied at a
constant irradiance (constant angle α between the polarization planes of the
filters), i.e. the current-voltage characteristics, is shown in Fig
Even at an angle α = 90° between
the polarization planes of the
filters a photocurrent flows, since
in this position the polarization
filters do not extinguish the ray
of light completely.
Measuring photocurrent IPh as a function
of irradiance at a constant voltage U:
The relation between the photocurrent IPh and the
irradiance at a constant voltage, the current irradiance
characteristics, is shown in Fig.
The term cos2α is a relative measure for the
irradiance (α angle between the polarization
planes of the filters). As expected, the
photocurrent increases with increasing
irradiance. However, the characteristics are
not perfectly linear. The slope rather
decreases with increasing irradiance.
Result
PRESENTED BY :

SANJAYANA SHENDE & SUHAILA C T