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Discussion

The document discusses the objectives and results of an experiment measuring the current-voltage characteristics of a CdS photoresistor. As irradiance increases, photocurrent also increases, causing the photoresistor to behave like an ohmic resistance dependent on irradiance. When light falls on the photoresistor, electrons absorb energy and break atomic bonds, becoming free electrons and holes that carry electric current. As more light and charge carriers are generated, resistance decreases and current increases. Photoresistors are used in devices like streetlights and smoke detectors that require light-sensitive control.

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512 views2 pages

Discussion

The document discusses the objectives and results of an experiment measuring the current-voltage characteristics of a CdS photoresistor. As irradiance increases, photocurrent also increases, causing the photoresistor to behave like an ohmic resistance dependent on irradiance. When light falls on the photoresistor, electrons absorb energy and break atomic bonds, becoming free electrons and holes that carry electric current. As more light and charge carriers are generated, resistance decreases and current increases. Photoresistors are used in devices like streetlights and smoke detectors that require light-sensitive control.

Uploaded by

hp
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Discussion:

The objectives of this experiment are:

 Recording the current-voltage characteristics of a CdS photoresistor


 Measuring the photocurrent IPH as a function of the voltage U at a constant
irradiance Φ

As expected, the results from the graph shows that the photocurrent increases with
increasing irradiance and as a result the CdS photoresistor behaves like an ohmic resistance
that depends on the irradiance.

When the light falls on the photoresistor, some of the valence electrons absorbs energy


from the light and breaks the bonding with the atoms, which are called free electrons.

When the light energy applied to the photoresistor is highly increased, a large number of
valence electrons gain enough energy from the photons to breaks the bonding with the
parent atoms and jumps into the conduction band. When the valence electron left the
atom, a vacancy is created which is called a hole. Therefore, the free electrons and holes
are generated as pairs.

These free electrons and holes will carry electric current, the amount of electric current
flowing through the photoresistor is depends on the number of charge carriers (free
electrons and holes).

When the light energy applied to the photoresistor increases, the number of charge
carriers also increases. As a result, the electric current flowing through the photoresistor
increases. Increase in electric current means decrease in resistance. Thus, the resistance of
the photoresistor decreases when the intensity of applied light increases.

The phenomenon of photoconductivity occurs when an incident light shown upon a


semiconductor causes an increase in its electrical conductivity. This is because of excitation
of electrons across the energy gap into the conduction band, which leads to an increase in
the number of free carriers in the conduction band, hence, an increase in the conductivity
of the semiconductor.

Photoresistors are used in streetlights to control when the light should turn on and when
the light should turn off. They are also used in various devices such as (smoke detectors,
camera light meters, proximity switch, infrared astronomy, alarm devices, solar street
lamps, night-lights, and clock radios.)
(LDR) is made from a piece of exposed semiconductor material that have high resistance.
(Such as cadmium sulfide) to enable them to have their light sensitive properties.

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