Local emission spectroscopy of surface micrograins in A^IIIB^V semiconductors

Abstract

The density-of-states spectra and the parameters of levels of electron states in locally chosen surface micrograins of indium antimonide and arsenide and gallium arsenide are studied with a tunneling electron microscope in the field-emission mode of measurements. By correlating the current–voltage characteristics with the formula for the probability of emission via levels, the activation energies of the levels (ψ) and the lifetimes of electrons at the levels (τ) are determined. Two types of levels for electron localization are identified. These are levels in the micrograin bulk (ψ ≈ 0.75, 1.15, and 1.59 eV for n-InSb, n-InAs, and n-GaAs, respectively; τ ~ 10^–8–10^–7 s) and in the surface region of an i-InSb micrograin (ψ ~ 0.73, 1.33, 1.85, 2.15, 5.1 eV; τ ≈ 5 × 10^–8–3 × 10^–7 s). A physical model involving the Coulomb-interaction-induced localization of light electrons and their size quantization determined by the electron effective mass, energy, and concentration and by the surface curvature of the micrograin is proposed.