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Electrical Transport through Metal Contacts to In0.53Ga0.47As Thin Films

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2011

Pong-Fei Lu
Affiliation:
Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544
D. C. Tsui
Affiliation:
Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544
H. M. Cox
Affiliation:
Bell Communications Research, Murry Hill, NJ 07974
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Abstract

We report two phenomena observed in the electrical transport through metal contacts to In0.53Ga0.47 As thin films. First, a surface accumulation layer of electrons is found at the oxide-In0.53Ga0.47 As interface of Pb-oxide-In0.53Ga0.47 As tunnel junctions, suggesting that the surface Fermi level is not pinned in In0.53Ga0.47 As, and ideal ohmic contacts to n- In0 53Ga0.47 As can be made by using low work function metals. Second, we observed a strong oscillatory conductance on the I-V characteristic of electrical transport through In- In0.53 Ga0.47As contacts, with a period approximating the LO-phonon energy of In0.53Ga0.47As. We explain the data by successive phonon emission in the high field transport of ballistic electrons and point out that the experiment is a solid state analogue of the Franck-Hertz experiment.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1985

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