SEMICONDUCTOR DIODE WITH HOPPING MIGRATION OF ELECTRONS VIA POINT DEFECTS OF CRYSTALLINE MATRIX

Abstract

For the first time, a semiconductor p⁺n⁺-diode is considered, which is completely compensated with the point irradiationinduced defects (rt-defects) of one kind in three charge states (−1, 0, +1 in elementary charge units) on the background of the crystalline matrix. Each rt-defect introduces two energy levels into the semiconductor band gap. Such a diode, in which electrons in the conduction band and holes in the valence band are absent, is called a ζ-diode. The charge transport in the ζ-diode is performed by electron hopping via rt-defects only. In the drift-diffusion approximation, a system of nonlinear differential equations, which describes the hopping migration of electrons via rt-defects, is solved numerically. The distribution of the electric potential and the charge states along the ζ-diode, as well as its static current-voltage characteristics are calculated for a temperature of 78 K. The possibility of hopping current rectification in the ζ-diode based on crystalline silicon, partially disordered by the point irradiation-induced defects, is shown.