Electrical breakdown in ZnS:Mn films grown by rf-magnetron sputtering

We have studied the electrical breakdown field strength E_br of ZnS films doped with Mn(ZnS:Mn), produced by rf magnetron sputtering, as a function of film thickness d in the system Al-ZnS:Mn-Al. Electron-microscope studies have shown that breakdown is initiated under inhomogeneous field conditions imposed both by the roughness of the aluminum electrode and by the polycrystallinity of the ZnS:Mn film. An observed increase in E_br as d is reduced below 0.7 µm, with no polarity effect in breakdown under dc field conditions, is explained in terms of an electron-thermal breakdown model.Institute for Automation and Radio Electronics, Tomsk. Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 3, pp. 41–44, March, 1993.