Thickness-dependent conductivity of nanometric semiconductor thin films

Abstract

The miniaturization of electronic devices has led to the prominence, in technological applications, of semiconductor thin films that are only a few nanometers thick. In spite of intense research, the thickness-dependent resistivity or conductivity of semiconductor thin films is not understood at a fundamental physical level. We develop a theory based on quantum confinement which yields the dependence of the concentration of intrinsic carriers on the film thickness. The theory predicts that the resistivity $\rho$, in the 1-10 nm thickness range, increases exponentially as $\rho \sim \exp (const/L^{1/2})$ upon decreasing the film thickness $L$. This law is able to reproduce the remarkable increase in resistivity observed experimentally in Si thin films, whereas the effect of surface scattering (Fuchs-Sondheimer theory) alone cannot explain the data when the film thickness is lower than 10 nm.

References in corpus (3)

• Extended analytical BCS theory of superconductivity in thin films
• Universal $L^{-3}$ finite-size effects in the viscoelasticity of confined amorphous systems
• Analytical theory of enhanced Bose-Einstein condensation in thin films

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Quantum confinement theory of ultra-thin films: electronic, thermal and superconducting properties
• Turning non-superconducting elements into superconductors by quantum confinement and proximity
• Phonon-confinement theory of thermal conductivity in ultrathin silicon films
• Ginzburg-Landau Theory for Confined Thin-Film Superconductors