DOI: 10.1063/1.325394. Zero-bias resistance of grain boundaries in neutron-transmutation-doped polycrystalline silicon

Zero-bias resistance of grain boundaries in neutron-transmutation-doped polycrystalline silicon

10.1063/1.325394

Crossref journal-article

AIP Publishing

Journal of Applied Physics (317)

Abstract

We have characterized the electrical transport properties of neutron-transmutation-doped polycrystalline silicon. Zero-bias measurements of resistance have been made as a function of temperature on both bulk specimens and individual grain boundaries in this material. Below a doping level of ∼2×1015 phosphorus/cm3, the bulk resistance has a nearly Arrhenius behavior with an activation energy of ∼0.55 eV; above this donor concentration the resistivity is markedly curved on an Arrhenius plot with values of slope which decrease with decreasing temperature. Potential probe measurements show that a large spread in grain-boundary impedances exist in these higher-doped specimens. We compare our data to theoretical expressions for current flow across grain-boundary potential barriers and good agreement is observed; these comparisons indicate that the largest grain-boundary state densities observed in our samples consist of ∼6×1011 available single-electron-states/cm2 located within ∼0.2 eV from the center of the forbidden gap. The chemical potential of these grain-boundary regions is found to lie at midgap, in agreement with previous data on thin-film polycrystalline silicon. We note that the considerably higher orientation-independent state densities found in thin-film polycrystalline silicon contrasts strongly with the present data and suggest the presence of serious contamination effects in previously studied material.

Bibliography

Seager, C. H., & Castner, T. G. (1978). Zero-bias resistance of grain boundaries in neutron-transmutation-doped polycrystalline silicon. Journal of Applied Physics, 49(7), 3879â3889.

Authors 2

C. H. Seager (first)
T. G. Castner (additional)

References 28 Referenced 249

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{'key': '2024020420524273200_r3', 'first-page': '434', 'volume': '22', 'year': '1977', 'journal-title': 'Bull. Am. Phys. Soc.'} / Bull. Am. Phys. Soc. (1977)
{'key': '2024020420524273200_r4'}
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Dates

Type	When
Created	22 years, 6 months ago (Feb. 14, 2003, 4:46 p.m.)
Deposited	1 year, 6 months ago (Feb. 4, 2024, 3:52 p.m.)
Indexed	1 month, 1 week ago (July 25, 2025, 6:22 a.m.)
Issued	47 years, 2 months ago (July 1, 1978)
Published	47 years, 2 months ago (July 1, 1978)
Published Print	47 years, 2 months ago (July 1, 1978)

Funders 0

None

BibTeX

@article{Seager_1978, title={Zero-bias resistance of grain boundaries in neutron-transmutation-doped polycrystalline silicon}, volume={49}, ISSN={1089-7550}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.325394}, DOI={10.1063/1.325394}, number={7}, journal={Journal of Applied Physics}, publisher={AIP Publishing}, author={Seager, C. H. and Castner, T. G.}, year={1978}, month=jul, pages={3879–3889} }

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