Abstract
Transient field-effect measurements under large-amplitude voltage pulses are used to study the high-field behaviour of germanium surfaces. Breakdown phenomena are observed when the field at the surface exceeds about 104 V/cm. It is shown that these phenomena arise from quantum mechanical tunnelling between slow surface states and the semiconductor bulk. The slow states involved lie ∼ 0.03 eV below the conduction-band edge in n-type samples and ∼ 0.025 eV above the valence-band edge in p-type.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 114-119 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | Surface Science |
| Volume | 2 |
| Issue number | C |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 1964 |