skip to main content


Title: Optical constants of germanium and thermally grown germanium dioxide from 0.5 to 6.6eV via a multisample ellipsometry investigation
NSF-PAR ID:
10052457
Author(s) / Creator(s):
 ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  
Publisher / Repository:
American Vacuum Society
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology B, Nanotechnology and Microelectronics: Materials, Processing, Measurement, and Phenomena
Volume:
34
Issue:
6
ISSN:
2166-2746
Page Range / eLocation ID:
061205
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. null (Ed.)
    Abstract For the first time, electrical conduction mechanisms in the disordered material system is experimentally studied for p-type amorphous germanium (a-Ge) used for high-purity Ge detector contacts. The localization length and the hopping parameters in a-Ge are determined using the surface leakage current measured from three high-purity planar Ge detectors. The temperature dependent hopping distance and hopping energy are obtained for a-Ge fabricated as the electrical contact materials for high-purity Ge planar detectors. As a result, we find that the hopping energy in a-Ge increases as temperature increases while the hopping distance in a-Ge decreases as temperature increases. The localization length of a-Ge is on the order of $$2.13^{-0.05}_{+0.07}\mathrm{{A}}^\circ $$ 2 . 13 + 0.07 - 0.05 A ∘ to $$5.07^{-0.83}_{+2.58}\mathrm{{A}}^\circ $$ 5 . 07 + 2.58 - 0.83 A ∘ , depending on the density of states near the Fermi energy level within bandgap. Using these parameters, we predict that the surface leakage current from a Ge detector with a-Ge contacts can be much smaller than one yocto amp (yA) at helium temperature, suitable for rare-event physics searches. 
    more » « less