Lifetimes of electrons and holes in pure Si at temperature 40 mK

The paper presents the study of experimental current responses of Si p⁺-n-n⁺ 3 mm thick structure operated at 40 mK. Analysis of the data showed reduction of carrier lifetimes in silicon to 50−70 ns for electrons and 350 ns for holes, which is the most critical factor for restriction of the internal thermal gain in bolometric detectors based on the Joule-Lenz effect and should be accounted for in the optimization of detector design.