Electrical behaviour related to structure of nanostructured GeSi films annealed at 700°C

In this paper we continue the previous investigations on nanostructured Ge_xSi_1-x films. The films were deposited by magnetron sputtering and annealed in N₂ atmosphere at 700 °C. Their structure was investigated and correlated with the electrical behavior. For this, conventional and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy together with selected area electron diffraction was used. Electrical measurements of current-voltage and current-temperature curves were made. The majority of crystallites that forms the films have the composition Ge₅₀Si₅₀ and 15-30 nm size. The I-T characteristics have Arrhenius dependence, with two activation energies interpreted as transitions between quantum confinement levels.