Thermoelastic and electronic strain contributions to the frequency transmission photoacoustic effect in semiconductors

The photoacoustic effect is investigated as a function of the modulation frequency in a transmission detection configuration for semiconductor samples. The theoretical model for this configuration is given for the thermal and elastic processes besides the carrier-transport characteristics. The dependence of the photoacoustic effect on thermodiffusion, thermoelastic, and electronic-transport parameters is identified. The experimental photoacoustic data for Si samples are tested and they exhibit satisfactory agreement with the theoretical model.