Metal-nonmetal transition and resistivity of silicon implanted with bismuth

Abstract

Bismuth was implanted at room temperature in (100)-Si wafers with controlled energy and doses to result in a plateau-like implantation profile. The van der Pauw Si : Bi samples were characterized by the Hall effect and resistivity measurements from room temperature down to 13 K. The electron concentration of the prepared samples at 290 K varied from 3.0 × 1017 to 1.4 × 1020 cm−3. The resistivity of the Si : Bi samples presents a larger enhancement, compared to other dopants, when decreasing the Bi concentration. The metal-nonmetal transition was determined to be around 2 × 1019 cm−3. The calculated values obtained from the Generalized Drude Approach and an equation derived from Kubo formalism agree very well with the experimental data. The results confirm also the behavior ρc (Bi) < ρc(As) < ρc(P) < ρc(Sb) at 290 K.