Low temperature current - voltage characteristics of silicon diodes used as thermometers

• Published in: Cryogenics (Guildford) Vol. 33; no. 2; pp. 222 - 225
• Main Authors: SZMYRKA-GRZEBYK, A, LIPINSKI, L
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 1993; Elsevier
• Subjects: diode thermometers; Exact sciences and technology; Instruments, apparatus, components and techniques common to several branches of physics and astronomy; low temperature electronics; Physics; temperature measurement; Thermal instruments, apparatus and techniques; diode thermometers; low temperature electronics; temperature measurement; Temperature measurement; Voltage current curve; Resistance thermometer; Thermometry; Semiconductor diode; Experimental study; Low temperature
• ISSN: 0011-2275; 1879-2235
• DOI: 10.1016/0011-2275(93)90141-A

With the aim of the determination of an optimum value of the forward current for diode thermometers, the V versus I characteristics of two types of industrial diodes (1N4001-6 and BYP 401) and the diode thermometers DT 500 and DT 470 have been measured in the temperature range 4 – 300 K. All types of the diodes tested exhibited a logarithmic dependence of V on I in the temperature range above 20 K. Below this temperature large deviations from the classical theory of the p - n junction have been observed. In some diodes there was an instability of the voltage over a narrow temperature range, in other types their was a hysteresis of the V versus I characteristics, a negative resistance or an effect of ‘switching’ from a high resistivity state to a state of relatively low resistivity. The observed effects can have an influence on the accuracy of temperature measurement in the low temperature range.