n-type chalcogenides by ion implantation

Hughes, MA; Fedorenko, Y; Gholipour, B; Yao, J; Lee, TH; Gwilliam, RM; Homewood, KP; Hinder, S; Hewak, DW; Elliott, SR; Curry, RJ

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
(Ch¼S, Se, Te) family of glasses, with very high Bi or Pb ‘doping’ concentrations (B5–11
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.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 22, 2014
• Publication Date: Nov 7, 2014
• Deposit Date: Nov 10, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 5, 2016
• Journal: Nature Communications
• Print ISSN: 2041-1723
• Volume: 5
• Pages: 5346
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms6346
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms6346
• Related Public URLs: http://www.nature.com/ncomms/index.html
• Additional Information: Funders : Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC); Grant Number: EP/I018417/1, EP/I019065/1 and EP/I018050/1