Transient lateral photovoltaic effect in patterned metal-oxide-semiconductor films

The time dependent transient lateral photovoltaic effect has been studied with μs time resolution and with chopping frequencies in the kHz range, in lithographically patterned 21 nm thick, 5, 10, and 20 μm wide, and 1500 μm long Co lines grown over naturally passivated p-type Si (100). We have observed a nearly linear dependence of the transitorial response with the laser spot position. A transitorial response with a sign change in the laser-off stage has been corroborated by numerical simulations. A qualitative explanation suggests a modification of the drift-diffusion model by including the influence of a local inductance. Our findings indicate that the microstructuring of position sensitive detectors could improve their space-time resolution.