The Electronic Properties Of Semiconductor Grain Boundaries

Abstract

ABSTRACTGrain boundaries play an important role in determining the operating characteristics of devices such as varistors and thin film solar cells and transistors. In the last several years detailed one-electron expressions have been developed for the transport coefficients of majority and minority carriers at grain boundaries. These theories have been successful in predicting the measured electrical properties of bicrystals in lightly doped silicon. The status of our understanding in this area will be reviewed in some detail. Recent extensions of these calculations which have been necessary to explain measurements on grain boundaries in degenerately doped GaAs will also be reviewed.