Electronic transport in amorphous germanium arsenides

Abstract

Electronic transport has been investigated in amorphous sputtered films of Ge0.54As0.46 and Ge0.38As0.62 through measurements of dark conductivity, photoconductivity, thermoelectric power, field effect, and optical absorption. Both electrons and holes participate in electronic transport with slightly greater contribution to conductivity from electrons. As a consequence the thermoelectric power is negative, and the field effect indicates two-carrier conductivity in the presence of about 1020 cm−3 eV−1 localized states at the equilibrium Fermi level in both materials.