Transition from Transient to Steady-State Currents in Insulators

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Abstract
An essentially descriptive treatment is presented of the transition from transient to steady‐state currents for small, i.e., space‐charge unperturbed signals. This transition has not previously been discussed in the literature. The analogous transition for large signals, i.e., space‐charge perturbed and ultimately space‐charge limited, is discussed in a comparative framework. The theoretical predictions are illustrated by new results on electron transport in orthorhombic sulfur single crystals. The low drift mobility and long lifetime for electrons in this elemental insulator allowed, for the first time, the observation of the time‐resolved transition from transient to steady‐state currents for small signals. The experimental results provide the first direct experimental observation that space‐charge‐perturbed currents, as opposed to space‐charge‐limited currents, are bulk limited even when light intensity dependent.