ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates the effect of electron-hole pair generation during electron illumination on the charge carrier equilibria in a transmission electron microscopy (TEM) sample under observation. The resulting changes of the electrostatic potential were analysed by numerical semiconductor device simulation for electricaJly active grain boundaries and pn-junctions in silicon. A systematic distortion of potential maps due to extrinsic charge carrier generation in a TEM experiment has to be expected as a source of uncertainty additional to the instrumentational limits for the quantitative holographic phase reconstruction. The semiconductor device simulation presented imitates the real process in a qualitative and more or less accurately in a quantitative manner. The resulting change in the charge state and the balancing quasi-Fermi levels can be shown to maximise the recombination currents at the trap states for the given conditions, similar to results obtained for optical illumination of grain boundaries in polycrystalline silicon for solar cell application.
