Influence of tunnelling through barriers on grain boundaries on hole mobility in polycrystalline tellurium films

Abstract

A theory of carrier mobility in polycrystalline semiconductors which includes the influence of tunnelling through the barriers on grain boundaries is presented. The relations derived for the temperature and voltage dependence of mobility enables one to find the basic parameters of a barrier (its height and width) and of grains (the mean diameter and carrier mobility) from the experimental results. The experimental verification is carried out on tellurium films having a thickness of 3 to 10 μm, prepared by evaporation in high vacuum.

Properties of vanadium oxide thin films for ethanol sensor

“…[27][28][29] As the conductivity activation energy decreases with decreasing temperature, this behaviour may be associated with a tunnel effect conduction process across intercrystalline barriers. 30 In fact, all films analysed have free carrier concentrations greater than 10 16 cm Ϫ3 the depletion layer width, estimated as the screening Debye length, 31 is smaller than 10 Å, a value that allows for this tunnel mechanism.…”

Percolative behavior of an anisotropic two-dimensional network:Growth of tellurium onto an oriented polymer film

“…Transport measurements of tellurium thin films have been explained by an activated conduction mechanism due to barriers located at grain boundaries ͑in the temperature range 250-450 K, tellurium evaporated between 295 and 413 K͒. [25][26][27][28] Therefore we expect an exponential decrease of the microbridge resistance during the filling-up process. Whenever the microbridge has been completed, the resistance changes only slightly.…”