n-type chalcogenides by ion implantation

Hughes, Mark A., Fedorenko, Yanina, Gholipour, Behrad, Yao, Jin, Lee, Tae-Hoon, Gwilliam, Russell M., Homewood, Kevin P., Hinder, Steven, Hewak, Daniel W., Elliott, Stephen R. and Curry, Richard J. (2014) n-type chalcogenides by ion implantation. Nature Communications, 5, 5346. (doi:10.1038/ncomms6346).

Abstract

Carrier-type reversal to enable the formation of semiconductor p-n junctions is a prerequisite for many electronic applications. Chalcogenide glasses are p-type semiconductors and their applications have been limited by the extraordinary difficulty in obtaining n-type conductivity. The ability to form chalcogenide glass p-n junctions could improve the performance of phase-change memory and thermoelectric devices and allow the direct electronic control of nonlinear optical devices. Previously, carrier-type reversal has been restricted to the GeCh (Ch=S, Se, Te) family of glasses, with very high Bi or Pb 'doping' concentrations (~5-11 at.%), incorporated during high-temperature glass melting. Here we report the first n-type doping of chalcogenide glasses by ion implantation of Bi into GeTe and GaLaSO amorphous films, demonstrating rectification and photocurrent in a Bi-implanted GaLaSO device. The electrical doping effect of Bi is observed at a 100 times lower concentration than for Bi melt-doped GeCh glasses.

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Contributors

Author: Daniel W. Hewak

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