scholarly journals Microscopic Understanding of the Carrier Transport Process in Ge Nanocrystals Films

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Shan ◽  
Hongyu Wang ◽  
Mingjun Tang ◽  
Jun Xu

Hydrogenated amorphous germanium (a-Ge:H) films were prepared by a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) technique. Ge nanocrystals (Ge NCs) films were obtained by thermal annealing of the as-deposited samples at various temperatures. P-type behavior in Ge NCs films without any external doping was attributed to the holes accumulation caused by acceptor-like surface states. It can be found that the dark conductivity and Hall mobility reached as high as 25.6 S/cm and 182 cm2/V·s in the Ge NCs film annealed at 500°C, which were increased by over four and three orders of magnitude higher than that of the as-deposited film (1.3 × 10-3 S/cm and 0.14 cm2/V·s, resp.). Carrier transport mechanisms of Ge NCs films association with the microstructural characteristics were investigated. Three kinds of temperature-dependent conductivity behaviors, which exhibit the linear relationships of ln⁡σ versus T-1/4, T-1/2, and T-1, respectively, were observed in the temperature regions from 10 K to 500 K, showing different microscopic mechanisms governing carrier transport in Ge NCs film.

2015 ◽  
Vol 1770 ◽  
pp. 25-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
V.C. Lopes ◽  
A.J. Syllaios ◽  
D. Whitfield ◽  
K. Shrestha ◽  
C.L. Littler

ABSTRACTWe report on electrical conductivity and noise measurements made on p-type hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) thin films prepared by Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PECVD). The temperature dependent electrical conductivity can be described by the Mott Variable Range Hopping mechanism. The noise at temperatures lower than ∼ 400K is dominated by a 1/f component which follows the Hooge model and correlates with the Mott conductivity. At high temperatures there is an appreciable G-R noise component.


1992 ◽  
Vol 283 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Q. Gu ◽  
J. M. Viner ◽  
P. C. Taylor ◽  
M. J. Williams ◽  
W. A. Turner ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTPhotoluminescence (PL) has been investigated in hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si:H) samples as a function of boron doping for films prepared by remote plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition. When the dark conductivity a is below about 10-5 S/cm, the PL spectra exhibit a shape which is close to that of the so-called band tail PL in undoped hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) at 77 K. When a increases, the PL intensity decreases at 77 K. For samples with a on the order of 10-3 S/cm, the PL spectra show only a narrow, low energy PL band which peaks around 0.8–0.9 eV. In these samples, the PL at higher energy is essentially not observable. This trend is similar to that which occurs in doped a-Si:H. However, for higher doping levels (σ ∼ 1 S/cm) the PL in μc-Si:H, although very weak, exhibits a broad band which contains intensity at higher energies. The absorption spectra in these samples, as measured by photothermal deflection spectroscopy (PDS), show the same relationships with the corresponding PL spectra as do the PDS spectra in doped a-Si:H.


2006 ◽  
Vol 20 (03) ◽  
pp. 303-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
QING-SONG LEI ◽  
ZHI-MENG WU ◽  
JIAN-PING XI ◽  
XIN-HUA GENG ◽  
YING ZHAO ◽  
...  

We have examined the deposition of highly conductive boron-doped microcrystalline silicon (μc- Si:H ) films for application in solar cells. Depositions were conducted in a very high frequency plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (VHF PECVD) chamber. In the deposition processes, various substrate temperatures (TS) were applied. Highly conductive p-type microcrystalline silicon films were obtained at substrate temperature lower than 210°C. The factors that affect the conductivity of the films were investigated. Results suggest that the dark conductivity, which was determined by the Hall mobility and carrier concentration, is influenced by the structure. The properties of the films are strongly dependent on the substrate temperature. With TS increasing, the dark conductivity (σd) increases initially; reach the maximum values at certain TS and then decrease. Also, we applied the boron-doped μc- Si:H as p-layers to the solar cells. An efficiency of about 8.5% for a solar cell with μc- Si:H p-layer was obtained.


2007 ◽  
Vol 989 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasutoshi YASHIKI ◽  
Seiichi KOUKETSU ◽  
Shinsuke MIYAJIMA ◽  
Akira YAMADA ◽  
Makoto KONAGAI

AbstractEffects of boron doping on microcrystalline germanium carbon alloy (μc-Ge1-xCx:H) thin films have been investigated. We deposited boron-doped p-type μc-Ge1-xCx:H thin films by hot-wire chemical vapor deposition technique using hydrogen diluted monomethylgermane (MMG) and diborane (B2H6). A dark conductivity of 1.3 S/cm and carrier concentration of 1.7 x 1020 cm-3 were achieved with B2H6/MMG ratio of 0.1. Furthermore, the activation energy decreased from 0.37 to 0.037 eV with increasing B2H6/MMG ratio from 0 to 0.1. We also fabricated p-type μc-Ge1-xCx:H/n-type c-Si heterojunction diodes. The diodes showed rectifying characteristics. The typical ideality factor and rectifying ratio were 1.4 and 3.7 x 103 at ¡Ó 0.5 V, respectively.


1996 ◽  
Vol 446 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jun Xu ◽  
Kunji Chen ◽  
Duan Feng ◽  
Seiichi Miyazaki ◽  
Masataka Hirose

AbstractA series of hydrogenated amorphous germanium‐nitrogen (a‐GeN:H) alloys have been synthesized by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition. The structure and its thermal stability have been investigated by means of Raman Scattering and Fourier Transform Infrared techniques. It was found that the structure is changed from Ge‐Ge‐like to Ge‐N‐like when the nitrogen content x in a‐Ge1‐xNx:H is larger than 0.3. Some a‐GeN:H alloys were annealed for 30min at different temperature and it is shown that the film structural stability is significantly improved compared with pure a‐Ge:H film.


2014 ◽  
Vol 92 (7/8) ◽  
pp. 586-588 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Kitani ◽  
T. Maeda ◽  
S. Kakimoto ◽  
K. Tanaka ◽  
R. Okumoto ◽  
...  

Boron-doping characteristics in hydrogenated amorphous silicon–oxygen alloys (a-SiO:H) have been studied in contrast to those in hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H). Although the boron-incorporation efficiency shows almost the same value between a-SiO:H and a-Si:H, p-type a-SiO:H (p-a-SiO:H) exhibits lower dark conductivity by one or two orders of magnitude as compared to p-type a-Si:H (p-a-Si:H) in a wide range of doping levels. We have found that p-a-SiO:H exhibits low dark conductivity as compared to p-a-Si:H even when we choose samples showing the same activation energy from a variety of as-deposited and thermally annealed samples. We have concluded from the different Urbach-energy values between high quality intrinsic a-SiO:H and a-Si:H that the origin of low dark conductivity in p-a-SiO:H is due to low hole mobility.


1994 ◽  
Vol 358 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Ben-Chorin ◽  
S. Grebner ◽  
F. Wang ◽  
R. Schwarz ◽  
A. Nikolov ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTIn order to clarify the role of the enlarged surface area of porous silicon on the electrical conductivity, we have studied the transport in mesoporous silicon layers, for which quantum confinement effects are negligible. We prepare free standing mesoporous films, from highly doped p-type Si wafers. The dark conductivity of the mesoporous layers is activated with an energy of 0.5 eV. Thermopower measurements show negative sign indicating electron conduction. The exposure of these layers to methanol vapor results in an increased conductivity and change of the thermopower magnitude. Photoconductivity measurements and the Steady-State Photocarrier Grating technique (SSPG) are used to evaluate the density of the surface states and the dynamics of the photo-excited carriers. All these results indicate that a large density of surface states exist, which results in a depletion of the free holes.


1986 ◽  
Vol 70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masud Akhtar ◽  
Herbert A. Weaklie

ABSTRACTHydrogenated amorphous silicon may be deposited at relatively low temperatures, where the density of defects may be expected to be low, by the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of higher silanes. This method is an attractive alternative to plasma deposition techniques. We describe here the preparation of a-Si:H and related alloys incorporating carbon, germanium, and fluorine. a-Si:H films were deposited on heated substrates in the range 365°C-445°C by CVD of Si2H6 and Si3H8. The optical gap (Eg) ranged from 1.4 to 1.7 eV and the properties of films deposited from either Si2 H6 or Si3 H8 were quite similar. Wide band gap (Eg=2 eV) alloys of a-SiC:H doped with boron were prepared by CVD of disilane, methyl silane, and diborane. We also prepared variable band gap a-SiC:H alloys by substituting F2C= CFH for methylsilane, and these films were found to have approximately 1–2% fluorine incorporated. The dark conductivity of the boron doped a-SiC:H alloys dep~sited from either carbon source ranged from ix10-7 to 6x10-7 (ohm-cm)-1. We also prepared low band aap alloys of Si and Ge by CVD of trisilane and germane. The band gap of a film containing 20% Ge was 1.5 eV; however, the photoconductivity of the film was relatively low.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document