Electrophysical properties and energetical spectrum of heteroepitaxial germanium films

An epitaxial growth of Ge films from molecular beam is characterized by thermodynamical nonequilibrium. This leads to formation of numerous structural defects connected with local levels in the band gap (mainly acceptor-type). Depending on the deposition temperature the density of such levels may change in wide range (10¹⁶–10¹⁸ cm^?3). This determines various mechanisms of impurity conduction. The tails of the density of states in the band gap are also connected with the defect structure of the films. Stresses in heteroepitaxial Ge films result in the splitting of the valence band atk = 0 and in a change of the band gap. Thus, these stresses have influence on the electrical and optical properties of the films.     

Near band-edge luminescence of semi-insulating undoped gallium arsenide at high levels of excitation

The dependences of the maximum and the half-width of near band-edge photoluminescence of semi-insulating undoped-GaAs crystals at 77 K on the concentration of background acceptor impurities and the level of excitation in the range from 3×10²¹ to 6×10²² quantum/(cm² s) are investigated. The observed dependences are explained by formation of the density tails of states as a result of fluctuations of impurity concentration and participation of localized states of the donor impurity band in radiative transitions. Reduction of many-particle interaction at increasing of N can be connected with increasing of shielding of charge carriers by atoms of impurity.     

Photoelectronic investigations of semi-insulating p-type GaAs:Cr containing neutral chromium acceptors

A photoelectronic analysis of p-type GaAs:Cr, i.e. measurements of thermally stimulated currents and the dependences of photoconductivity and photo-Hall effect on photon energy, temperature and light intensity, have enabled trap locations and densities as well as properties of neutral chromium acceptors to be determined. Hole traps proved to be located at 0.15 and 0.23 eV above the valence band, and their densities have been estimated to be 10¹⁵ cm^?3 and 5 × 10¹⁶ cm^?3 respectively. Their occurrence is related to the presence of copper in the samples investigated. Neutral chromium acceptors are located at 0.77 eV above the valence band and are at a constant distance from the conduction band. Their photoionization cross-section is 3 × 10^?17 cm² while the photoexcited electron escape cross-section is about 10^?20 cm². The potential of a neutral Cr acceptor is of the delta function type with weak coulombic tails. The maximum radius of the Bohr orbit of an electron in the ground state is 4 atomic units.     

Luminescence in amorphous semiconductors

A review of the luminescence properties of amorphous semiconductors is presented. The materials covered are chalcogenide glasses, silicon and arsenic. Luminescence spectra, excitation spectra, temperature dependences and lifetimes are described.

The radiative transition in chalcogenides is the recombination of an electron in the conduction band tail and a trapped hole. A strong electron-phonon coupling distorts the lattice near the trapped hole, lowering its energy. This interaction is responsible for the broadness of the luminescence band and its position at about half the band gap energy. The recombination centre is thought to be a charged dangling bond with density 10¹⁷ cm^-3 in arsenic chalcogenides and 10¹⁶ cm^-3 in selenium. The same centre is observed in the hole drift mobility, and thermally stimulated conductivity.

Luminescence in amorphous silicon also originates from recombination between the band tails and deep centres, with three separate transitions identified. In contrast to chalcogenides the electron-phonon coupling is not strong. The shape and intensity of the spectra are very sensitive to sample preparation and treatment, and correlate with other electrical and optical properties of Si.     

Inelastic scattering of Ne atoms from a LiF(001) surface

Scattering experiments with a ²⁰Ne nozzle beam from a LiF(001) surface in the 〈100〉 azimuth are reported. The (11) and (1̄1̄) Bragg reflections show broad tails due to inelastic scattering. These tails can be attributed by time-of-flight measurements to single phonon scattering on acoustic modes. The inelastic contribution decreases rapidly with increasing energy of the phonons involved.     

Influence of band tails on the diffusivity-mobility ratio in highly degenerate semiconductors

The diffusivity-mobility ratio of the carriers in highly degenerate semiconductors in which the impurity states form band tails is shown to be directly determined by the characteristic energies of the tails at low temperatures.     

Optical characterization of gallium antimonide highly doped with manganese

Gallium antimonide crystals highly doped with Mn were prepared by a liquid-phase-electroepitaxy growth method. The crystals exhibited high hole concentrations up to 6×10¹⁸ cm⁻³. Photoluminescence (PL) and transmission techniques were used for their investigation. Spectral line-shapes typical for highly doped semiconductors were observed. The lines revealed the features corresponding to band gap narrowing and valence-band filling phenomena. Values of the band-gap narrowing ΔE_g and the degree of the valence-band filling ΔE_F were estimated from the PL spectra. The ionization energy of the Mn acceptor E_i was estimated to be approximately 15.1-15.6 meV. At low temperatures, the PL maxima shifted relatively strongly towards higher energy with temperature. The shifts most probably resulted from a dramatic change in the electron density of states near the bottom of the conduction band. The extent of low-energy tails of the PL bands correlates with the doping levels. The transmission spectra exhibited an absorption band centred at around 774-780 meV. The band most probably originated in electron transitions from the level of spin-orbit splitting to the top of the valence band.     

On the electron energy spectrum in heavily doped non-parabolic semiconductors

An attempt is made to present a simple theoretical analysis of the energy-wave vector dispersion relation of the conduction electrons in heavily doped non-parabolic semiconductors forming band tails. We observe that the complex energy spectrum in doped small-gap materials whose unperturbed conduction band is described by the three band model of Kane is due to the interaction of the impurity atoms in the tail with the spin-orbit splitting constant of the valence band (Δ), For band-gap (E_g)<Δ the imaginary part predominates which tails in to the conduction band. For the opposite inequality the real part comes in to play which tails in to the split-off band. In the absence of the band tailing effect, the imaginary part of the complex energy spectrum vanishes and the same is also true for doped two-band Kane-type and parabolic energy bands respectively. The present formulation helps us in investigating the Boltzmann transport equation dependent transport properties of degenerate semiconductors and are expected to agree better with experiments. The well-known results of unperturbed three and two band models of Kane together with wide-gap parabolic energy bands have been obtained as special cases of our generalized analysis under certain limiting conditions.     

Transport properties of electrons in energy band tails

Transport properties of electrons in energy band tails of disordered semiconductors are studied experimentally using a material system in which (i) the width and shape of the band-tail are approximately known and (ii) the Fermi energy is controllable. The material is heavily-doped, closely-compensated, crystalline n-GaAs whose compensation ratio can be made arbitrarily close to unity by the use of two techniques that are described in detail. This control of the Fermi level through compensation permits the measurement of the transport properties of electrons at various energies in the band-tail.

Using band tails having a width of ～50 meV, measurements have been made of the temperature dependence of the d.c. conductivity and Hall coefficient, the frequency dependence of the a.c. conductivity and the electric field dependence of the d.c. conductivity (the last two at low temperatures).

The evidence demonstrates the progressively greater localization of states deeper in the tails. No sign is found of a sharp mobility edge. There is a number of close similarities to the properties of amorphous semiconductors but some significant differences. The frequency dependence of the a.c. conductivity at low temperatures is essentially identical with that of amorphous semiconductors in accord with the general interpretation that conductivity at low temperatures takes place by electron hopping among localized states near the Fermi energy. The detailed temperature dependence of the d.c. conductivity at low temperatures is log σ=σ ₀ exp [?(T ₀/T)^1/2], thus disagreeing with a theoretical expectation that the exponent for low temperature hopping conduction should be 1/4. At low temperatures, the electric field dependence of the conductivity shows a variation as σ～exp (bF/T) over a considerable range extending down to field strengths close to 1 V/cm. This closely resembles recent observations on amorphous semiconductors but the range of field strengths here is lower by several orders of magnitude.     

Amorphouslike density of gap states in single-crystal pentacene

We show that optical and electrical measurements on pentacene single crystals can be used to extract the density of states in the highest occupied molecular orbital-lowest unoccupied molecular orbital band gap. It is found that these highly purified crystals possess band tails broader than those typically observed in inorganic amorphous solids. Results on field-effect transistors fabricated from similar crystals imply that the gap state density is much larger within 5-10 nm of the gate dielectric. Thus, organic thin-film transistors for such applications as flexible displays might be significantly improved by reducing these defects.     

A derivation for the energy dependence of the density of band tail states in disordered materials

Variational arguments are employed to present the first explicit derivation of the behavior of band tail states and localization length over most of the tail region of a random alloy. Exponential tails are shown to exist near the mobility edges, in conformity with the observation in disordered systems. The character of the states forming the band tails is discussed and, for random alloys, the localization length is shown to exhibit a minimum as a function of energy between band edge and mobility edge.     

Ion-energy distributions in liquid-metal-ion sources

Energy distributions of mass-separated ions emitted from liquid-metal-ion sources using Ni-B-Si and Pt-P-Sb alloys have been measured in a dynamic range of four orders of magnitude. Low-energy tails are observed on the energy-per-unit ion charge for singly-charged ions, in contrast with doubly-charged ions. The higher ion-emission current brings about longer tails. Rather flat tails are also observed on the high-energy side for M⁺ ion species in the Pt-P-Sb alloy LMIS, where the M²⁺ intensity is larger than the M⁺ one. The origins of these energy tails are discussed.     

A rigorous proof of the existence of band tails in disordered magnetic insulators

From the knowledge of the first moments of the density of states and, using a Lagrangian formalism, exact upper and lower bounds to the density of states of a simple hole in a magnetic insulator are calculated within the Hubbard model. These bounds provide a rigorous proof of the existence of band tails in the case of an antiferromagnetic spin arrangement in a simple cubic lattice. When the spin arrangement is random, the results suggest very strongly the existence of band tails.     

Part II. Algebraic tails in three-dimensional quantum plasmas

We review various exact results concerning the presence of algebraic tails in three-dimensional quantum plasmas. First, we present a solvable model of two quantum charges immersed in a classical plasma. The effective potential between the quantum charges is shown to decay as 1/r ⁶ at large distances r. Then, we mention semiclassical expansions of the particle correlations for charged systems with Maxwell-Boltzmann statistics and short-ranged regularization of the Coulomb potential. The quantum corrections to the classical quantities, from orderh ⁴ on, also decay as 1/r ⁶. We also give the result of an analysis of the charge correlation for the one-component plasma in the framework of the usual many-body perturbation theory; some Feynman graphs beyond the random phase approximation display algebraic tails. Finally, we sketch a diagrammatic study of the correlations for the full many-body problem with quantum statistics and pure 1/r interactions. The particle correlations are found to decay as 1/r ⁶, while the charge correlation decays faster, as 1/r ¹⁰. The coefficients of these tails can be exactly computed in the low-density limit. The absence of exponential screening arises from the quantum fluctuations of partially screened dipolar interactions.     

Structural and optical properties of amorphous Sb2S3 thin films deposited by vacuum thermal evaporation method

Sb₂S₃ thin films have been deposited by vacuum thermal evaporation onto glass substrates at various substrate temperatures in the range of 30–240 °C. Crushed powder of the synthesized Sb₂S₃ was used as raw material for the vacuum thermal evaporation. The structural investigation performed by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD) showed that the all as-deposited films present an amorphous structure and all the films were highly resistive. The reflectance and transmittance of the films are measured in the incident wavelength range 300–1800 nm. The absorption coefficient spectral analysis revealed the existence of long and wide band tails of the localized states in the low absorption region. The band tails width is calculated and found to be varying between 0.024 and 0.032 eV. The analysis of the absorption coefficient in the high absorption region revealed two direct forbidden band gaps between 1.78–1.98 eV and 1.86–2.08 eV.     

Atomistic origin of urbach tails in amorphous silicon

Exponential band edges have been observed in a variety of materials, both crystalline and amorphous. In this Letter, we infer the structural origins of these tails in amorphous and defective crystalline Si by direct calculation with current ab initio methods. We find that exponential tails appear in relaxed models of diamond silicon with suitable extended defects that emerge from relaxing point defects. In amorphous silicon (a-Si), we find that structural filaments of short bonds and long bonds exist in the network, and that the tail states near the extreme edges of both band tails are also filamentary, with much localization on the structural filaments. We connect the existence of both filament systems to structural relaxation in the presence of defects and of topological disorder.     

氢化非晶碳薄膜的光致发光线型及其激发能量依赖关系

本文报道了氢化非晶碳薄膜在2.9-4.5eV光激发下的发光谱。它的光致发光谱是无结构的不对称宽带,半宽度约为0.8eV。在低于3.56eV的光激发下,谱带的峰值能量随激发能量的降低明显红移。在安德森带结构和指数分布的带尾态密度的基础上,考虑了尾态中粒子的两种跃迁过程,实验的PL谱就可得到解释。并用这个简单模型计算了这种材料的光致发光谱特征。     

A comparative study of the microstructures and optical properties of Cu- and Ag-doped ZnO thin films

Cu- and Ag-doped ZnO films were deposited by direct current co-reactive magnetron sputtering technique. The microstructure, the chemical states of the oxygen, zinc, copper and silver and the optical properties in doped ZnO films were investigated by X-ray diffraction spectroscopy (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and UV-Visible spectroscopy. XRD analysis revealed that both of Cu- and Ag-doped ZnO films consist of single phase ZnO with zincite structure while the doping elements had an evident effect on the (0 0 2) preferential orientation. The XPS spectra showed that the chemical states of oxygen were different in Cu- and Ag-doped ZnO thin films, which may lead to the shift of the band gap as can be observed in the transmittance and absorption spectra. Meanwhile, the widths of band tails of ZnO films became larger after Cu and Ag doping.     

微波电子回旋共振等离子体化学气相淀积法制备非晶氟化碳薄膜的研究

采用电子回旋共振等离子体化学气相淀积(ECR-CVD)法，以C₄F₈和CH₄为源气体制备了非晶氟化碳(a-C：F)薄膜.X射线电子能谱(XPS)和傅里叶变换红外光谱(FTIR)分析表明，a-C：F薄膜退火后厚度减小是由于位于a-C：F薄膜交联结构末端的C—C和CF₃结合态的热稳定性较差，导致退火时容易生成气态挥发物造成的.a-C：F膜介电常数在300℃氮气气氛中退火后由于电子极化增大和薄膜密度增加而上升，界面态陷阱密度从(5—9)×10¹¹eV^-1·cm^-2降至(4—6)×10¹¹eV^-1·cm^-2.a-C：F薄膜导电行为在低场强区域呈现欧姆特性，在高场强区域符合 Poole-Frankel机理.非定域π电子在带尾形成陷阱且陷阱能量在退火后降低，从而使更多陷阱电子在场增强热激发作用下进入导带并引起电流增大. 关键词： a-C：F ECR-CVD 键结构 电学性质