Modeling minority-carrier lifetime techniques that use transient excess-carrier decay

Details of the operation of a photoconductive decay technique called resonant-coupled photoconductive decay are revealed using modeling and circuit simulation. The technique is shown to have a good linear response over its measurement range. Experimentally measured sensitivity and linear response compare well to microwave reflection at low injection levels. We also measure the excess-carrier decay rate by an infrared free-carrier transient absorption technique and show comparable high injection level lifetimes.