Electrical behaviour related to structure of nanostructured GeSi films annealed at 700°C

Abstract

In this paper we continue the previous investigations on nanostructured GexSi1-x films. The films were deposited by magnetron sputtering and annealed in N2 atmosphere at 700 °C. Their structure was investigated and correlated with the electrical behavior. For this, conventional and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy together with selected area electron diffraction was used. Electrical measurements of current-voltage and current-temperature curves were made. The majority of crystallites that forms the films have the composition Ge50Si50 and 15-30 nm size. The I-T characteristics have Arrhenius dependence, with two activation energies interpreted as transitions between quantum confinement levels.