Silicon in an External E-Field

[ApplePi314]

Hello!

I was wondering what would happen if you placed a piece of undoped Si in an external electric field (say, between the plates of a capacitor) under illumination. Would it generate current?

I'm essentially trying to understand if a large enough external electric field could split an electron-hole pair in the same manner as a p-n junction.

Sorry if it is a dumb question and I really appreciate any responses.

Thanks!

 

[Sunfire]

Sounds like an experiment someone I know wanted to do - put a SiO2-like material in electric field and measure the photoluminescence spectrum... the experiment was never done.

I would go back to basics and study the effect of electric field on dielectrics to get an idea what to expect... All the best!