THERMAL ACTIVATION ENERGY OF HOPPING ε2-CONDUCTION VIA BORON ATOMS IN WEAKLY COMPENSATED SILICON

Abstract

The insulating side of the concentration insulator–metal phase transition (Mott’s transition) in p-type silicon crystals doped with acceptor (boron atoms) is considered under the conditions of stationary hopping electrical conduction. The boron atoms substitute silicon atoms in the crystal lattice and can be in one of the three charge states (−1, 0, +1), while the compensating impurity (donors) is in the charge state (+1). The distribution of impurity atoms is supposed to be random (Poisson’s distribution). The A0-band is formed from the energy levels of boron atoms in the charge states (0) and (−1), while the A+-band is formed from the energy levels of boron atoms in the charge states (+1) and (0). The decrease in the activation energy ε2 of thermally assisted tunneling transitions (hops) of holes between electrically neutral boron atoms, i. e. boron atoms that are in the charge state (0), is calculated. The ε2 quantity is approximately equal to an energy gap between A0- and A+-bands, i. e. Hubbard’s gap. In the quasi-classical approximation it is shown that the narrowing of the energy gap between A0- and A+-bands occurs due to: (i) the formation of a quasi-continuous band of allowed energy values for v-band holes from excited quantum states of boron atoms in the charge state (0), thus the value of the v-band shift into the band gap is determined by a maximum radius of the hole orbit in a boron atom, which does not exceed the half of the average distance between the nearest impurity atoms, and (ii) the splitting of the ground (non-excited) energy levels of the “molecular” pairs of boron atoms in the charge states (0) into triplet and singlet states of two holes. Calculations of ε2 without any adjustable parameters are quantitatively agree with the known experimental data on p-Si:B.