Layered semiconductors

During epitaxial growth, the semiconductor layers must be doped to form thep—n junction and conductive current spreading window layers. Eor III—V materials, zinc, Zn beryUium, Be carbon, C magnesium. Mg and siUcon, Si are commonly employed as -type dopants, whereas tellurium, Te ... 

Photovoltaic devices typically consist of a series of thin semiconductor layers that are designed to convert sunlight to dkect-current electricity (see Semiconductors). As long as the device is exposed to sunlight, a photovoltaic (PV) cell produces an electric current proportional to the amount of light it receives. The photovoltaic effect, first observed in 1839, did not see commercial appHcation until the 1950s when photovoltaic modules were used to power early space sateHites. Many good descriptions of the photovoltaic phenomenon are available (7). 

Fig. 21 Pnnciple of construction of a photoelement [1]. — 1 light-transmitting metal layer, 2 semiconductor layer, 3 metal plate.

An important method for producing semiconductor layers is the so-called molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) (see [3,12-14] and [15-19]). Here, atoms of the same or of a different material are deposited from the vapor source onto a faceted crystal surface. The system is always far from thermal equilibrium because the deposition rate is very high. Note that in this case, in principle, every little detail of the experimental setup may influence the results. 

Polymers such as PTV have potential applications as the active semiconductor layer in thin-film transistors (TFTs). 

Conventional electronic devices are made on silicon wafers. The fabrication of a silicon MISFET starts with the diffusion (or implantation) of the source and drain, followed by the growing of the insulating layer, usually thermally grown silicon oxide, and ends with the deposition of the metal electrodes. In TFTs, the semiconductor is not a bulk material, but a thin film, so that the device presents an inverted architecture. It is built on an appropriate substrate and the deposition of the semiconductor constitutes the last step of the process. TFT structures can be divided into two families (Fig. 14-12). In coplanar devices, all layers are on the same side of the semiconductor. Conversely, in staggered structures gate and source-drain stand on opposing sides of the semiconductor layer. 

Eq. (14.43) requires accumulation to extend all along the channel, namely Vdcontact with the rest of the semiconductor layer, we have also to account for the bulk conductivity of the semiconducting film when integrating the drain current, which leads to an equation of the form... 

The results of the ellipsometric study are presented in Table 9. As is clear from the table, the resultant average thickness of the semiconductor layer, obtained from one bilayer precursor, is about 0.8 nm. This value can be considered the thickness resolution of this technique. It is worth mentioning that among the available techniques, only molecular beam epitaxy allows one to reach such resolution. However, the proposed technique is much simpler and does not require complicated or expensive equipment. 

Summarizing, it is possible to conclude that the technique of forming ultrasmall semiconductor particles turned out to be a powerful tool for building up single-electron junctions, even working at room temperature, as well as thin semiconductor layers and superlattices with structural features, reachable in the past only via molecular beam epitaxy. 

Figure 9.3 Interaction between the anthocyanin hydroxyl groups and the metal of the semiconductor layer.

Polo and Murakami Iha used anthocyanins extracted from jaboticaba (Myrciaria cauliflora Mart) and calafate (Berberis buxifolia Lam) as dyes for DSSCs. [46] The interaction between the dye molecules and Ti02 was identified by comparing the visible absorption spectra of the bare dye in solution with those acquired after dye absorption on the semiconductor a 15 nm red shift indicated the anchorage of the anthocyanin molecules on the Ti02 nanoparticles. The inorganic semiconductor layer was deposited on ITO and the electrolyte employed was I /I3 dissolved in acetonitrile. The photovoltaic cell obtained with the jaboticaba extract gave an IPCE value of 0.2 with a short-circuit current (/sc) of 7.2 mAcm 2, a Voc of 0.5 V and a fill factor of 54%. 

Metal alkyls can be prepared in a simple manner from the main group halides (X = Cl, Br, I) and the appropriate alkyl Grignard reagent (RMgl) or the alkyllithium salt (RLi), as shown for the cadmium alkyls (Equation (2)).13 The elimination of impurities from the precursor source is of great importance, as any remaining impurities are invariably carried over into the growing semiconductor layers. Incorporation of impurities, even at levels as low as 1015 free carriers per cubic centimeter (one part in ca. 107), can drastically affect the electronic properties of the... 

Table 3 shows some typical effects of adduct purification on precursor purity and on the electrical properties of the resulting semiconductor layers grown by MOVPE. 

Variation of the nature of the gate electrode results in the different types of FET. For example, in the metal oxide semiconductor FET (MOS-FET) palladium/palladium oxide is used as the gate electrode. This catalyti-cally decomposes gases such as hydrogen sulphide or ammonia with the production of hydrogen ions, which pass into the semiconductor layer. An enzyme may be coated on the palladium, e.g. urease, which catalyses the production of ammonia from urea and thus provides a device for the measurement of this substrate. 

The speed of response of the photodiode depends on the diffusion of carriers, the capacitance of the depletion layer, and the thickness of the depletion layer. The forward bias itself increases the width of the depletion layer thus reducing the capacitance. Nevertheless, some design compromises are always required between quantum efficiency and speed of response. The quantum efficiency of a photodiode is determined largely by the absorption coefficient of the absorbing semiconductor layer. Ideally all absorption should occur in the depletion region. This can be achieved by increasing the thickness of the depletion layer, but then the response time increases accordingly. 

Semiconductor-based lasers have been further developed from the simple model depicted in Figure 2.14. The predictions by Kroemer and Alferov in the early 1960s stated that the concentrations of electrons, holes, and photons would become much higher if they were confined to a thin semiconductor layer between two other layers (Kroemer, 1963). Since then, sophisticated configurations for semiconductor heterostructures lasers have been made possible due to the development of fabrication techniques (Wilson and Hawkes, 1998 Kasap, 2001). 

Poly( -phenylene vinylene) (PPV) was the first reported (1990) polymer to exhibit electroluminescence. PPV is employed as a semiconductor layer. As noted earlier, the layer was sandwiched between a hole-injecting electrode and electron-injecting metal on the other. PPV has an energy gap of about 2.5 eV and thus produces a yellow-green luminescence. Today, other materials are available, which give a variety of colors. 

A large fraction of the material science research, and an important chapter of solid state physics are concerned with interfaces between solids, or between a solid and a two dimensional layer. Solid state electronics is based on metal-semiconductor and insulator-semiconductor junctions, but the recent developments bring the interface problem to an even bigger importance since band gap engineering is based on the stacking of quasi two dimensional semiconductor layers (quantum wells, one dimensional channels for charge transport). 

This CVD procedure is somewhat different from that used to deposit semiconductor layers. In the latter process, the primary reaction occurs on the substrate surface, following gas-phase decomposition (if necessary), transport, and adsorption. In the fiber optic process, the reaction takes place in the gas phase. As a result, the process is termed modified chemical vapor deposition (MCVD). The need for gas-phase particle synthesis is necessitated by the slow deposition rates of surface reactions. Early attempts to increase deposition rates of surface-controlled reactions resulted in gas-phase silica particles that acted as scattering centers in the deposited layers, leading to attenuation loss. With the MCVD process, the precursor gas flow rates are increased to nearly 10 times those used in traditional CVD processes, in order to produce Ge02-Si02 particles that collect on the tube wall and are vitrified (densified) by the torch flame. 

Infrared Ellipsometry on Semiconductor Layer Structures Phonons, Plasmons, and Polaritons... 

Hirai (2) prepared an organic semiconductor layer for an organic thin-film transistor consisting of pentacene derivatives, (II), having a thickness of 1 pm. 

III), were prepared by Kim et al. (4) and used in gate electrode, a gate insulating layer, an organic semiconductor layer, and in source/drain electrodes applications. 

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