Laser beam interference effects on the photovoltage of a p-n junction diode

The photovoltage developed by a p-n junction diode illuminated by an interference pattern through a slit depends both on the distance between fringes and the phase of the interference pattern relative to the position of the slit. For a slit width which accommodates an integer number N of fringes, the voltage is independent of the phase of the pattern but this is no longer the case for a noninteger number of fringes. The maximum dependence is observed for script N sign+1/2 fringes within the slit but the effect decreases as script N sign increases. When the fringe distance is no longer negligible compared to the minority carrier diffusion length the dependence of the photovoltage on the number of fringes becomes more pronounced. A theory is presented which shows how the diffusion length can be obtained from the experimental data. Experiments on GaAs and Si diodes are reported.