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Schottky Barriers on Amorphous Si and Their Applications

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Metal-Semiconductor Schottky Barrier Junctions and Their Applications

Abstract

While amorphous Si films had been produced for several years, it was in the 1960s that significant efforts were undertaken to produce pure a-Si which might be used for thin film devices. Researchers proceeded with diligence, but the norm of the time was that very few transport measurements exhibited consistent results between different samples. Furthermore, even brief exposure to air produced changes which could not be reversed by standard etching procedures. The discovery that changed all this was the method of producing a-Si by rf-plasma decomposition of silane (SiH4) gas.(1) While it was initially thought that the material was pure (i.e., devoid of H), it was later shown that at least 3 at. % and as much as 50 at. % H could be incorporated into the film. It was found that stable and reproducible films could be produced in which the Fermi energy could be shifted by “substitutional” doping. This material thus represented a true semiconductor and has nucleated a whole field of research into its properties and applications.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, 3333 Coyote Hill Road, Palo Alto, California, 94304, USA

    R. J. Nemanich & M. J. Thompson

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  1. R. J. Nemanich
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  1. Solid State Physics Laboratory, Delhi, India

    B. L. Sharma

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© 1984 Plenum Press, New York

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Nemanich, R.J., Thompson, M.J. (1984). Schottky Barriers on Amorphous Si and Their Applications. In: Sharma, B.L. (eds) Metal-Semiconductor Schottky Barrier Junctions and Their Applications. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-4655-5_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-4655-5_9

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

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