Electron tunneling in heavily In-doped polycrystalline CdS films

Abstract

The electrical properties of heavily In-doped polycrystalline CdS films have been studied as a function of the doping level. The films were prepared by vacuum coevaporation of CdS and In. Conductivity and Hall measurements were performed over the temperature range 77-400 K. The conductivity decreases weakly with the temperature and shows a tendency towards saturation at low temperatures. A simple relationship σ=σ0(1+βT 2) is found in the low-temperature range. The temperature dependence of the mobility is similar to that of the conductivity since the Hall coefficient is found to be a constant in the whole temperature range. We interpret the experimental results in terms of a modified version of grain-boundary trapping Seto's model, taking into account thermionic emission and tunneling of carriers through the potential barriers. The barriers are found to be high and narrow, and tunneling becomes the predominating transport mechanism.