Rectifier interface

Considerable potential exists to design surface modified electrodes which can mimic the behaviour of electronic components. For example, a rectifying interface can be produced by using two-layer polymer films on electrodes. The electroactive species in the layers have different redox potentials. Thus electron transfer between the electrode (e.g. platinum) and the outer electroactive layer is forced to occur catalytically by electron transfer mediation through the inner electroactive layer. 

H. D. Abruna, P. Denisevich, M. Umana, T. J. Meyer, R. W. Murray, Rectifying interfaces using 2-layer films of electrochemically polymerized vinylpyri-dine and vinylbipyridine complexes of ruthenium and iron on electrodes, Journal of the American Chemical Society 1981, 103, 1. 

The size-exclusion and ion-exchange properties of zeoHtes have been exploited to cause electroactive species to align at a zeoHte—water interface (233—235). The zeoHte thus acts as a template for the self-organization of electron transfer (ET) chains that may find function as biomimetic photosynthetic systems, current rectifiers, and photodiodes. An example is the three subunit ET chain comprising Fe(CN)g anion (which is charge-excluded from the anionic zeoHte pore stmcture), Os(bipyridine)3 (which is an interfacial cation due to size exclusion of the bipyridine ligand), and an intrazeoHte cation (trimethylamino)methylferrocene (F J ). A cationic polymer bound to the (CN) anion holds the self-assembled stmcture at an... 

Metals for Schottl Contacts. Good Schottky contacts on semiconductor surfaces should not have any interaction with the semiconductor as is common in ohmic contacts. Schottky contacts have clean, abmpt metal—semiconductor interfaces that present rectifying contacts to electron or hole conduction. Schottky contacts are usuaHy not intentionaHy annealed, although in some circumstances the contacts need to be able to withstand high temperature processing and maintain good Schottky behavior. 

Contacts are the elementary building blocks for all electronic devices. These include interfaces between semiconductors of different doping type (homojunctions) or of different composition (heterojunctions), and junctions between a metal and a semiconductor, which can be either rectifying (Schotlky junction) or ohmic. Because of their primary importance, the physics of semiconductor junctions is largely dealt with in numerous textbooks [11, 12]. We shall concentrate here on basic aspects of the metal-semiconductor (MS) and, above all, metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) junctions, which arc involved in the oiganic field-effect transistors. 

A semiconductor can be described as a material with a Fermi energy, which typically is located within the energy gap region at any temperature. If a semiconductor is brought into electrical contact with a metal, either an ohmic or a rectifying Schouky contact is formed at the interface. The nature of the contact is determined by the workfunction, (the energetic difference between the Fermi level and the vacuum level), of the semiconductor relative to the mclal (if interface effects are neglected - see below) 47J. 

On the other hand, Switzer et al. proposed a different model for the oscillation. They attributed the oscillation to repetitive build-up and breakdown of a thin CU2O layer, which is a p-type semiconductor and acts as a thin rectifying (passivating) layer [24]. Disappearance of the oscillation under irradiated condition supports this model. Light will generate electron-hole pairs in the CU2O and lower the rectifying barrier at the semiconductor/solution interface. 

The current-potential relationship predieted by Eqs. (49) and (50) differs strongly from the Butler-Volmer law. For y 1 the eurrent density is proportional to the eleetro-static driving force. Further, the shape of the eurrent-potential curves depends on the ratio C1/C2 the curve is symmetrical only when the two bulk concentrations are equal (see Fig. 19), otherwise it can be quite unsymmetrieal, so that the interface can have rectifying properties. Obviously, these current-potential eurves are quite different from those obtained from the lattice-gas model. 

To date, EROS development has concentrated very much on the system itself and its chemistry. Far less attention has been paid to the interface between EROS and user. To rectify this situation, work has begun on implementing procedures for graphical input and output of molecular structures. 

To understand the underlying rectifying mechanism, let s start from the energy spectrum of the interface particles. Fig. 8 shows the phonon spectra of the left and right interface particles at different temperature when the two lattices are decoupled kmt = 0). 

Lenfant S, Guerin D, TranVan F, Chevrot C, Palacin S, Bourgoin IP, Bouloussa O, Rondelez F, Vuillaume D (2006) Electron transport through rectifying self-assembled monolayer diodes on silicon Fermi-level pinning at the molecule-metal interface. J Phys Chem B 110 (28) 13947-13958... 

The rectifier, or diode, is an electronic device that allows current to flow in only one direction. There is low resistance to current flow in one direction, called the forward bias, and a high resistance to current flow in the opposite direction, known as the reverse bias. The operation of a pn rectifying junction is shown in Figure 6.17. If initially there is no electric field across the junction, no net current flows across the junction under thermal equilibrium conditions (Figure 6.17a). Holes are the dominant carriers on the / -side, and electrons predominate on the n-side. This is a dynamic equilibrium Holes and conduction electrons are being formed due to thermal agitation. When a hole and an electron meet at the interface, they recombine with the simultaneous emission of radiation photons. This causes a small flow of holes from the jp-region... 

It is, of course, well known that metal-semiconductor interfaces frequently have rectifier characteristics. It is significant, however, that this characteristic has been confirmed specifically for systems that have been used as inverse supported catalysts, including the system NiO on Ag described above as catalyst for CO-oxidation. In the experimental approach taken, nickel was evaporated onto a silver electrode and then oxidized in oxygen. A space charge-free counter-electrode was then evaporated onto the nickel oxide layer, and the resulting sandwich structure was annealed. The electrical characteristic of this structure is represented in Fig. 8. The abscissa (U) is the applied potential the ordi-... 

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