5,689 research outputs found
Fundamentals of metal-semiconductor contacts
The fundamentals of metal-semiconductor contacts are discussed. Contact resistance values for solar cells are also discussed
Ohmic contacts to n-type germanium with low specific contact resistivity
A low temperature nickel process has been developed that produces Ohmic contacts to n-type germanium with specific contact resistivities down to (2.3 ± 1.8) x10<sup>-7</sup> Ω-cm<sup>2</sup> for anneal temperatures of 340 degC. The low contact resistivity is attributed to the low resistivity NiGe phase which was identified using electron diffraction in a transmission electron microscope. Electrical results indicate that the linear Ohmic behaviour of the contact is attributed to quantum mechanical tunnelling through the Schottky barrier formed between the NiGe alloy and the heavily doped n-Ge.<p></p>
Coherent transport in Nb/delta-doped-GaAs hybrid microstructures
Coherent transport in Nb/GaAs superconductor-semiconductor microstructures is
presented. The structures fabrication procedure is based on delta-doped layers
grown by molecular-beam-epitaxy near the GaAs surface, followed by an As cap
layer to protect the active semiconductor layers during ex situ transfer. The
superconductor is then sputter deposited in situ after thermal desorption of
the protective layer. Two types of structures in particular will be discussed,
i.e., a reference junction and the engineered one that contains an additional
insulating AlGaAs barrier inserted during the growth in the semiconductor. This
latter configuration may give rise to controlled interference effects and
realizes the model introduced by de Gennes and Saint-James in 1963. While both
structures show reflectionless tunneling-dominated transport, only the
engineered junction shows additionally a low-temperature single marked
resonance peaks superimposed to the characteristic Andreev-dominated subgap
conductance. The analysis of coherent magnetotransport in both microstructures
is successfully performed within the random matrix theory of Andreev transport
and ballistic effects are included by directly solving the Bogoliubov-de Gennes
equations. The impact of junction morphology on reflectionless tunneling and
the application of the employed fabrication technique to the realization of
complex semiconductor-superconductor systems are furthermore discussed.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures, invited review paper, to be published in Mod.
Phys. Lett.
Voltage modulated electro-luminescence spectroscopy and negative capacitance - the role of sub-bandgap states in light emitting devices
Voltage modulated electroluminescence spectra and low frequency ({\leq} 100
kHz) impedance characteristics of electroluminescent diodes are studied.
Voltage modulated light emission tracks the onset of observed negative
capacitance at a forward bias level for each modulation frequency. Active
participation of sub-bandgap defect states in minority carrier recombination
dynamics is sought to explain the results. Negative capacitance is understood
as a necessary dielectric response to compensate any irreversible transient
changes in the minority carrier reservoir due to radiative recombinations
mediated by slowly responding sub-bandgap defects. Experimentally measured
variations of the in-phase component of modulated electroluminescence spectra
with forward bias levels and modulation frequencies support the dynamic
influence of these states in the radiative recombination process. Predominant
negative sign of the in-phase component of voltage modulated
electroluminescence signal further confirms the bi-molecular nature of light
emission. We also discuss how these states can actually affect the net density
of minority carriers available for radiative recombination. Results indicate
that these sub-bandgap states can suppress external quantum efficiency of such
devices under high frequency operation commonly used in optical communication.Comment: 21 pages, 4 sets of figure
Diffusion-emission theory of photon enhanced thermionic emission solar energy harvesters
Numerical and semi-analytical models are presented for
photon-enhanced-thermionic-emission (PETE) devices. The models take diffusion
of electrons, inhomogeneous photogeneration, and bulk and surface recombination
into account. The efficiencies of PETE devices with silicon cathodes are
calculated. Our model predicts significantly different electron affinity and
temperature dependence for the device than the earlier model based on a
rate-equation description of the cathode. We show that surface recombination
can reduce the efficiency below 10% at the cathode temperature of 800 K and the
concentration of 1000 suns, but operating the device at high injection levels
can increase the efficiency to 15%.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Deep levels in a-plane, high Mg-content MgxZn1-xO epitaxial layers grown by molecular beam epitaxy
Deep level defects in n-type unintentionally doped a-plane MgxZn1−xO, grown by molecular beam epitaxy on r-plane sapphire were fully characterized using deep level optical spectroscopy (DLOS) and related methods. Four compositions of MgxZn1−xO were examined with x = 0.31, 0.44, 0.52, and 0.56 together with a control ZnO sample. DLOS measurements revealed the presence of five deep levels in each Mg-containing sample, having energy levels of Ec − 1.4 eV, 2.1 eV, 2.6 V, and Ev + 0.3 eV and 0.6 eV. For all Mg compositions, the activation energies of the first three states were constant with respect to the conduction band edge, whereas the latter two revealed constant activation energies with respect to the valence band edge. In contrast to the ternary materials, only three levels, at Ec − 2.1 eV, Ev + 0.3 eV, and 0.6 eV, were observed for the ZnO control sample in this systematically grown series of samples. Substantially higher concentrations of the deep levels at Ev + 0.3 eV and Ec − 2.1 eV were observed in ZnO compared to the Mg alloyed samples. Moreover, there is a general invariance of trap concentration of the Ev + 0.3 eV and 0.6 eV levels on Mg content, while at least and order of magnitude dependency of the Ec − 1.4 eV and Ec − 2.6 eV levels in Mg alloyed samples
Control of threshold voltage in E-mode and D-mode GaN-on-Si metal-insulator-semiconductor heterostructure field effect transistors by in-situ fluorine doping of atomic layer deposition Al2O3 gate dielectrics
We report the modification and control of threshold voltage in enhancement and depletion mode AlGaN/GaN metal-insulator-semiconductor heterostructure field effect transistors through the use of in-situ fluorine doping of atomic layer deposition Al2O3. Uniform distribution of F ions throughout the oxide thickness are achievable, with a doping level of up to 5.5 × 1019 cm−3 as quantified by secondary ion mass spectrometry. This fluorine doping level reduces capacitive hysteretic effects when exploited in GaN metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitors. The fluorine doping and forming gas anneal also induces an average positive threshold voltage shift of between 0.75 and 1.36 V in both enhancement mode and depletion mode GaN-based transistors compared with the undoped gate oxide via a reduction of positive fixed charge in the gate oxide from +4.67 × 1012 cm−2 to −6.60 × 1012 cm−2. The application of this process in GaN based power transistors advances the realisation of normally off, high power, high speed devices
Generalized four-point characterization method for resistive and capacitive contacts
In this paper, a four-point characterization method is developed for
resistive samples connected to either resistive or capacitive contacts.
Provided the circuit equivalent of the complete measurement system is known
including coaxial cable and connector capacitances as well as source output and
amplifier input impedances, a frequency range and capacitive scaling factor can
be determined, whereby four-point characterization can be performed. The
technique is demonstrated with a discrete element test sample over a wide
frequency range using lock-in measurement techniques from 1 Hz - 100 kHz. The
data fit well with a circuit simulation of the entire measurement system. A
high impedance preamplifier input stage gives best results, since lock-in input
impedances may differ from manufacturer specifications. The analysis presented
here establishes the utility of capacitive contacts for four-point
characterizations at low frequency.Comment: 21 pages, 10 figure
- …