Skip to main content

Modulation of Metastable Metal-Semiconductor Junctions

Resource type
Thesis type
(Thesis) M.Sc.
Date created
2014-09-26
Authors/Contributors
Author: Zhu, Lixia
Abstract
The feasibility of modulating the electrical properties of metal-semiconductor (MS) junctions was examined via the preparation of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) at the interface. In this thesis, metal-monolayer-semiconductor junctions were prepared using a hanging mercury (Hg) drop electrode in contact with an oxide-free silicon substrate (H-Si≡), where the mercury drop was subsequently modified with alkanethiolate SAMs. It has been demonstrated that the electrical properties of an Hg-S-C18|H-Si≡ junction can be tuned from rectifying to ohmic or vice versa by manual manipulation of the size and shape of the Hg drop. Evaluation of the rectification ratio (R), ideality factor (η) and barrier height (qɸeff) enables the determination of the threshold value of the surface area change of the mercury contact. In addition, the effect of variation of the alkyl chain length of the alkanethiolate SAMs on the Hg electrode was studied. Both qɸeff and R were found to depend on the alkyl chain length and changed gradually upon aging. This augments the potential for molecularly tuning the electrical properties of classical MS junctions without complicated materials assembly or device fabrication.
Document
Identifier
etd8656
Copyright statement
Copyright is held by the author.
Permissions
The author has not granted permission for the file to be printed nor for the text to be copied and pasted. If you would like a printable copy of this thesis, please contact summit-permissions@sfu.ca.
Scholarly level
Supervisor or Senior Supervisor
Thesis advisor: Yu, Hua-Zhong
Member of collection
Download file Size
etd8656_LZhu.pdf 4.44 MB

Views & downloads - as of June 2023

Views: 0
Downloads: 0