Time resolved imaging of carrier and thermal transport in silicon

We use ultrashort optical pulses to microscopically image carrier and thermal diffusion in two spatial dimensions in pristine and mechanically polished surfaces of crystalline silicon. By decomposing changes in reflectivity in the latter sample into a transient component that varies with delay time and a steady-state component that varies with pump chopping frequency, the influence of thermal diffusion is isolated from that of carrier diffusion and recombination. Additionally, studies using carrier injection density as a parameter are used to clearly identify the carrier recombination pathway.