Photoconductivity decay method for determining minority carrier lifetime of p-type HgCdTe

A theoretical study of the photoconductivity decay method is presented for determining excess carrier lifetime of p-type HgCdTe when recombinations are due to trapping centers. The solutions to the equations describing the transient decay are numerically evaluated and compared with steady-state lifetimes determined using the Shockley-Read equations. It is found for p-type HgCdTe that for short pulse width photoexcitation, the minority carrier lifetime can be obtained from photoconductivity decay measurements.