Semimetal-to-semiconductor transition in bismuth thin films
Abstract
Field- and temperature-dependent magnetotransport measurements on Bi layers grown by molecular-beam epitaxy have been analyzed by mixed-conduction techniques. In the thin-film limit, the net hole density scales inversely with layer thickness while the mobility scales linearly. By studying the minority electron concentration as a function of temperature in the range 100-300 K, we have unambiguously confirmed the long-standing theoretical prediction that quantum confinement should convert Bi from a semimetal to a semiconductor at a critical thickness on the order of 300 Å.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review B
- Pub Date:
- October 1993
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevB.48.11431
- Bibcode:
- 1993PhRvB..4811431H
- Keywords:
-
- 73.50.Gr;
- 68.55.Bd;
- 73.20.Dx;
- 72.80.Cw;
- Charge carriers: generation recombination lifetime trapping mean free paths;
- Elemental semiconductors