"Bradley1234" writes:

"Sam Goldwasser" wrote in message
...

The current is proportional to optical power and is more or less
independent of applied voltage. That's not what is normally
considered to be a resistor.

The current? so we agree that current changes. Im saying its because the
resistance changes, not because power is created inside a diode that is
adding to the circuit. Are you saying optical power is transferred right
out of the diode? It comes in as light and is converted to current?

So how do you explain that a photodiode can operate in photovoltaic mode
with no bias and generate power?

Im saying light affects the depletion region that causes a change in
resistance, its proportional to incident optical power but assuredly not
linearly proportional

But the current in a photodiode is very linearly related to optical power
until the device saturates.

Each photon generates one or more electron-hole pairs. That is where the
current comes from.

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