Low-temperature hall coefficient and conductivity in heavily doped silicon

Abstract

The Hall coefficient and conductivity of fifteen heavily doped silicon samples have been measured. The Hall-coefficient measurements were generally made in the temperature region 15−300°K, while the conductivity measurements were taken in the region 3−30°K. The general behavior of the Hall coefficient and conductivity is similar to that in germanium and other semiconductors exhibiting impurity conduction. Two types of impurity conduction were observed: one believed to be non-band conduction and the other, band conduction. Investigation of the temperature region where the transition between normal band conduction and impurity conduction takes place shows a minimum in the impurity conduction resistivity vs. reciprocal temperature curve. Comparison of various samples shows that for a given impurity concentration, the lower impurity conductivity is found in the samples containing majority impurity atoms with the larger ionization energy. A possible model for impurity conduction is discussed.