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Electric field enhanced emission from non

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Article in Journal of Applied Physics January 1982

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 Electric field enhanced emission from nonCoulombic traps in
semiconductors
P. A. Martin, B. G. Streetman, and K. Hess

Citation: J. Appl. Phys. 52, 7409 (1981); doi: 10.1063/1.328731

View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.328731
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Electric field enhanced emission from non-Coulombic traps in
semiconductors
P. A. Martin, B. G. Streetman, and K. Hess
Coordinated Science Laboratory and Department ofElectrical Engineering. University ofIllinois at Urbana-
Champaign. Urbana, Illinois 61801
(Received 12 June 1981; accepted for publication 14 August 1981)
Electric field enhancement of emission from three non-Coulombic traps has been calculated: the
shielded Coulombic potential, the polarization potential, and the dipole potential. Both the Poole-
Frenkel effect and phonon-assisted tunneling have been included, and both were found to be
important. The field effect can be used to distinguish between these potentials on the basis of their
long range character. This effect is most important in interpreting the results of capacitance
transient studies of deep levels.
PACS numbers: 79.70. + q, 71.55.Fr, n.20.Jv

I. INTRODUCTION tunneling becomes important only at very high electric fields

(F _107 V!cm), we will not consider it here.
Deep levels in semiconductors are studied primarily by
capacitance transient techniques such as deep level transient
A. Poole-Frenkel effect
spectroscopy (DLTS).l These experiments detect the ther-
mal emission of carriers from traps in the depletion region of The Poole-Frenkel effect is a classical mechanism in
a reverse biased junction. Thus the emission process is stud- which the electron is thermally emitted over the top of a
ied in the midst of a junction electric field which can reach potential barrier which has been lowered by the presence of
105_106 V!cm for heavily doped semiconductors. Such an electric field. It is based on the detailed balance expression
fields can substantially increase the emission rates being for the emission rate without field, eno :
studied and must therefore be accounted for in the analysis eno = e: exp (- E;lkBT), (1)
of the experimental data. 2 ,3
Models of the field-enhanced emission process have where Ei is the ionization energy of the deep level and e:
been reported in the literature, but have been limited to Cou- contains the matrix elements of the transition. Any change
lombic potentials,4 Dirac delta function potentials,4 and in the barrier height is assumed to enter as a correction to Ei
square wells. 5 Deep levels are expected to be non-Coulom- in Eq. (1).
bic, and therefore an extension of these calculations to other The calculation was first done in a one-dimensional
physically plausible potentials is crucial for the successful model by Frenkel7 and later extended to three dimensions
modeling of experimental results, Such an extension is also independently by Hartke8 and Jonscher.9 For a Coulombic
necessary if one is to use the field effect to characterize the potential in an electric field F aligned in the - z direction we
potential well of a deep level. 4 write the potential as
The purpose of this paper is to extend these calculations
to include three new potentials: the shielded Coulombic or
Yukawa potential, the dipole potential and the polarization
E
potential. We will follow closely the approach of Vincent,
Chantre, and Bois4 in modeling phonon assisted tunneling.
The theory of Pons and Makram-Ebeid5 is less easily gener-
alized for different potentials. We begin with an overview of
the theory, presenting the Coulombic and square well results
for reference and comparison. Results of our calculations for
each of the three new potentials will then be presented.
r; 8=0

II. OVERVIEW OF THE THEORY

There are three mechanisms of emission enhancement
in an electric field: (i) the Poole-Frenkel effect, where the
electron climbs over a barrier lowered by the presence of the
field, (ii) pure tunneling, and (iii) phonon-assisted tunneling,
where the electron absorbs thermal energy from the lattice
H->.""""'""",,.r..rv-..r~""""","" Pu re
and then tunnels through the barrier at a higher energy. Tunneling
These mechanisms are illustrated in Fig. 1. The pure tunnel-
ing rate between a Dirac well and the conduction band was FIG. 1. Three mechanisms offield enhanced emission: Poole-Frenkel emis-
calculated by Korol in effective mass theory.6 Since pure sion, phonon-assisted tunneling, and pure tunneling.

7409 J. Appl. Phys. 52(12), December 1981 0021-8979/81/127409-07$01.10 @ 1981 American Institute of PhYSics 7409

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(2)
where q is the electronic charge and Er the relative dielectric
constant of the host crystal. For 0 < B < 1T12 there is a well-
defined potential minimum found by setting av lar = 0 at
r=rmax :
(3)
The change in potential barrier due to the presence of the
field is found by evaluating V (r) at r = rmax'
expression for r max in the Coulombic case shows that the
Poole-Frenkel effect is significant for rmax of the order of 50-
100 A. It is precisely the long Coulombic tail of the potential
which makes this an important effect at low field strengths.
To model this with a square well requires values of r0 which
are grossly unrealistic for modeling anything else, such as a
capture cross section. As we show below, the square well
gives a reasonable phonon-assisted tunneling rate compared
to other, more extended, potentials.
B. Phonon-assisted tunneling

qF cos () )112 The tunneling portion of this model is built on an ex-

OEi = V(rmax) = - q ( . (4) pression in the WKB approximation for the transparency of
1TEr EO
the potential barrier. An electron impinging on the barrier
Frenkel's one-dimensional result is given by setting B = O. will tunnel through with a probability
The emission enhancement is then
en!
(8m)1/2
P=exp ( - -fz-
iX, [V(X)]
x,
il2 )
dx , (10)
- = exp ( - flo EJ, (5)
eno
where V (x) is the height ofthe barrier relative to the energy of
where/l = lIkB Tand enO is defined in Eq. (1). The sUbscript the electron, m is the electron mass, and x! and X 2 are the
1 is used to specify a one-dimensional calculation. points at which V(x) = O.
The three-dimensional calculation requires an integra- A trapped electron can absorb a phonon and tunnel
tion over B due to the spatial variation of OEi .

(i 2" i"/2
through the barrier at a higher energy where the probability
P is more favorable. The probability of this composite event
-1 dJ sin BdBexp [-/loEi(B)] is
41T 0 0
- Eth) [ (8m)1/2
+ f2" dJ f" sin B dB) . (6)
Pc = exp ( kB T exp - -fz-
Jo J"/2
Here the sUbscript 3 denotes a three-dimensional calcula-
tion. The hemisphere 1T12 < B < 1T presents a problem in that
xiX'( 41TrEoX
x,
- q2 _ qFx + Ei _ Eth)1I2 dX], (11)
we expect diminished emission in this direction (since here where we have substituted the Coulombic potential in (10).
the potential is raised by the field) but there is no well-defined Ei is again the ionization energy of the deep level and Eth is
increase in potential height analogous to Eq. (4). We have the thermal excitation energy or phonon energy. The total
followed Hartke in assuming that the electric field does not emission probability en is given by integrating (11) over all
change the emission rate in this hemisphere. s 10nscher as- energies Eth and adding to it the Poole-Frenkel emission rate
sumed no emission in this direction 9 and Hill tried to model a
enl
finite lowering of the emission rate here. 10 The difference
among these treatments is small and only arises at low fields. en = en! + _1_ fE, - DE, dEthP '
(12)
kBT Jo
c
Equation (6) can be evaluated to obtain
en3 1e no =(lIr)[e Y (y-l)+ 1] +~, (7) The factor 1IkB Tin front of the integral normalizes the
integral so that the emission probability approaches 1 as F
where approaches infinity. II In this limit the emission rate is limit-
y = (qF 11TErEO)!/2qlkB T. ed only by the matrix element e;: between the localized ener-
There is a considerable difference between the one- and gy gap state and the conduction band states; the factor
three-dimensional expressions (5) and (7). The one-dimen- exp( - EJk B T) is at high fields exactly cancelled by the
sional analysis of Frenkel overestimates the field effect by emission enhancement of the field.
calculating it only at its maximum point, at B = O. This ac- We can divide both sides by the zero field emission rate
counts in part for the difficulty encountered in fitting the enO [Eq. (1)] to obtain the total relative field enhancement:

one-dimensional theory to experimental results. 9

The same treatment can be applied trivially to the
square well. Consider a potential well of depth Vo for r < ro
( 13)
and zero for r> roo This result is
en! leno = exp(y), (8) = ex p ( ~ ) _1_ iE' - lJE, dE Pc.
!!.::!.... th
eno kBT k8 T 0
en3 1eno = (1I2yHe Y - 1) +~, (9)
Vincent et al. have an approximate form of this equation for
Y = qFrolkB T. the Coulombic potential. 4 Equation (10) gives an analytic
The square well is useful for many purposes, but not for form for the transparency of the triangular barrier of a Dirac
modeling of the Poole-Frenkel effect. Examination of the or square well. Neglecting the Poole-Frenkel effect we have

7410 J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 52, No. 12, December 1981 Martin, Streetman, and Hess 7410

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 for z = (E; - Elh )Ik B T
~ = 1 + fE;lkT exp [z _ r/2( ~ (2m)I/2 (kB T)3/2 ) ]dZ. Yukawa Potential
Er =12.9, 3o.o.K
enO Jo 3 qfzF
c - - Coulombie
(14)
~ 10 2
Q)
-"'-"'- Ro = 2o.o.A
These are one-dimensional calculations for the phonon- u _.-._.- Ro = 5o.A
c
o ------- Ro = 20...0.
assisted tunneling. Thus we have used the one-dimensional .r:
c
W
Poole-Frenkel enhancement for a consistent picture, and for c
.2
a comparison of the two effects. We can expect the one-di- <f)
<f)

mensionality of the tunneling calculation to have the same E

w
effect as for the Poole-Frenkel effect: a substantial overesti-
mation of the effect of the field.
It is the usual practice to use for the mass in the equa-
tions above the effective mass of the band to which emission 10 4 10 5
F (V/em)
occurs. This may seem a dubious practice since the effective
mass approximation is usually invalid for deep levels. Unfor- FIG. 2. Poole-Frenkel effect e n3 /e nO for the Yukawa potential parame-
tunately, if one wants to avoid the effective mass approxima- trized by screening length Roo
tion, it is not enough to use the free electron mass for m; our
tential result displayed for comparison. By adjusting the
entire approach of considering an impurity potential with-
screening length Ro we can achieve a continuous variation
out any surrounding crystalline potential is equivalent to
between the field dependence of a Coulomb potential and
effective mass theory. Thus avoiding such an approximation
that of a Dirac potential. Note that even at Ro = 200 A. the
requires an altogether different approach. We show below
Yukawa potential dependence has not converged to that of
calculations for extreme values of m *; there is a quantitative
the Coulomb potential. This underlines further the long-
difference in the phonon-assisted tunneling rate but no quali-
range character of the Poole-Frenkel effect.
tative difference in the importance of tunneling and offield
effects in general.
Vincent et al. showed that, for a Coulomb potential,
both the Poole-Frenkel effect and phonon-assisted tunneling
Yukawa Potential
are important over the field ranges of interest (e.g., 104 _106 ;'
Er=12.9,3o.o.K :I
V/cm at 300 K). As shown below, we have found the same to ~ m*= Oo.7m o,Ro=2o.A /
be true for all our model potentials. The only exceptions are, ~ 106 ............ Coulomb Potential,en/eno b'
g -"'-"'- en/en ;f
of course, the square well and Dirac potentials, for which the l1 -- enl/enO ..;-
Poole-Frenkel effect is negligible or zero. W
e 104 -'-'-'- en3/enO .";'
0'//
c -------- en! len .' ,

~=:~~;~~:;;;:::3c;~.:-:::?;:-;;::f
III. YUKAWA POTENTIAL
A. Physical basis
] .0:
The Yukawa, or shielded Coulombic, potential is a
modification of the Coulombic potential to include screen-
L;4;---.l.----'---L......L...J.....L..l....I.I~05;---..J.....-.J........J--L--'-J....U...JloG
2
ing of the charge by surrounding electrons. In the presence of 10-

an electric field the potential is (a) 10 F (V/em)

2
V(r) = - q e- rIR - qFrcos e,
41Tror
Yukawa Potential ....
where Ro is the shielding length. We will treat Ro as an ad- Er =12.9, 3o.o.K .//
justable parameter. The point of maximum potential rmax is ro=2o.A, m*=mo / ....
c
the solution to Q)

E
........... Coulomb Potential, en/eno ....
- ... - ... - ... - en/eno
q_e- rIR [~
__ + _1_] =Fcos e, (15)
~102
o
.r:
--
-'-'-'-'-
enl/enO
en3/eno

/,'" //
../ /
r
. . .~.~~~~.~~. ~ : .~-.:.~. . . . . . . . . . . . .
c

~>~/
41Tr0 Ro W

which must be solved numerically. <f)

-.--;:/"'~/.> /
.~
E
w
B. Poole-Frenkel effect
-_... -...........
//

Some approximations are available for rmax which gives ------

an analytical one-dimensional result for the Poole-Frenkel
effect. Since these are not accompanied by analytical expres-
sions for phonon-assisted tunneling (an effect of equal or
greater importance), we feel they are of little use.
FIG. 3. Full field effect for the Yukawa potential for two values of effective
The three-dimensional Poole-Frenkel effect for the mass. In each case the total field effect en/ene for the Coulomb potential is
Yukawa potential is shown in Fig. 2, with the Coulomb po- shown for comparison: (a) m* = O.07mo; (b) m* = mo.

7411 J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 52, No. 12, December 1981 Martin, Streetman, and Hess 7411

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 Polarization Potential
- Yukawa ro =20A
- - - - - Coulomb ------ en1/eno
_10 3 - - en3 /e no
c -.-.-.- Square Well .,
c
_.-._.- e~3/ena
E106
Q)
Er=12.9, T=300K E
Q)
u
u c
c o
o
~l02
~ 104 w
W co
c o
o in
.~ 102 .!!!
E
E WlO
W

1O-2:,.-_.........._.L..-J.......J..........J....l.."-:.'-:;_ _L-....J.................J....l.....L...i...J-I 1 10
~ ~ ~ 1.649A"5 (qF)4t5. .
F (V/cm) Y= k8 T (dimensionless)

FIG. 4. Emission enhancement due to phonon-assisted tunneling en,/e nO FIG. S. Poole-Frenkel effect for the polarization potential in one- and three-
for Coulomb, Yukawa, and Dirac potentials; m* = O.07ma' dimensional models. e~3lenO includes a diminished emission rate in the re-
verse direction.

c. Phonon-assisted tunneling in the range 0 < 0 < 1T/2. The one-dimensional Poole-Fren-
The full field effect calculation is shown in Fig. 3 for two kel emission enhancement is given by
values of effective mass: m* = 0.07mo and m* = mo. In each
case the Coulombic result is shown for comparison. This
enlle no = exp r (20)
change in the effective mass changes the tunneling calcula- and the three-dimensional case by
tion quantitatively but does not affect the importance of
phonon-assisted tunneling, or offield effects in general. Fig- -e
nJ
= - 1 ( 1 + -5 Sol drr l 4
/ )
exprr,
e no 2 4 0
ure 4 shows the phonon-assisted tunneling rate enJe no com-
pared for the Coulomb, Yukawa, and Dirac wells. (The (21)
square well shows the same phonon-assisted tunneling rate r= 1.649A 1/5(qF)4/5IkB T.
as the Dirac well.) As expected, those potentials with greater Using Hill's technique for dealing with the raising of the
spatial extent show a greater field dependence. The emission barrier in the reverse direction,lo we assign an increase in
enhancement among these potentials varies by, at most, an barrier height for 1T12 < 0 < 1T equal to the corresponding
order of magnitude. lowering of the barrier = e' e
+ 1T. This results in
IV. POLARIZATION POTENTIAL
A. Physical basis
e' = - 5
~
eno 4
1 0
1
dr rl/4 cosh(rr). (22)

Lax used a polarization potential to model capture of While these integrals cannot be solved analytically,
electrons and holes by neutral impurities. 12 Tasch and Sah their numerical evaluation results in universal curves as
used this potential to model the observed field dependence of functions of r which give the Poole-Frenkel effect for any
Au in Si. 2 The potential is of the form combination of parameters. These curves are shown in
Fig. 5.
VIr) = -A Ir4
(16)
A = q2a/81ToC;,
where a is the polarizability of the neutral impurity atom
and , the relative dielectric constant of the host crystal. Lax Polarization Potential
estimated A = 2x 10- 31 eV cm 4 for Si:Au. A =2 xlO- 31 eV-cm 4, T =300K
m*=O.26mo, Ej =O.54eV
- ... - . - en/ena
B. Poole-Frenkel effect - - em/eno
-.-.-.- en3/e no
With an electric field in the - z direction, the total ----- en! lena
potential is c
.2
VIr) = ( - A Ir4) - qFr cos 0, (17) '"
.~
E
giving a maximum in potential barrier height at w 1

rmax = (4AlqFcosO)1I5 (18)

and a reduction in barrier height of 1O-2L,-_.........._.L..-.L...J--L..t....L.~_ _L-....J..................L...l.....L...J...J.,l
104 105 106
8E; = -(5X4- 4 / 5)A l/s(qFcosO)4/S F (Vlcm)

= - 1.649A 1/5(qF cos 0 )4/5 (19) FIG. 6. FulI field effect for the polarization potential.

7412 J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 52, No. 12, December 1981 Martin, Streetman, and Hess 7412

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 Polarization Potential ,
A =2x lO-31 eV-cm 4 I
/
c
Q)
m* =O.07mo, T =300K
I
/
----- E; =O.8eV E'
~ 109 --E;=O.6eV
u
c I FIG. 8. Orientation of the dipole
-.---.- E; = OAeV I
o I potential with dipole moment P
~ 106 I
I in an electric field F.
W I
c
o ~---!-~}- y ...
::l103 ! //
E
W
I
I'
,

-------------~~-j/

define the 0 = plane to be that containing F and z. The
orientation of the field and dipole moment is shown in Fig. 8.
FIG. 7. Emission enhancement due to phonon-assisted tunneling e.,/e.o
for the polarization potential, parametrized by ionization energy E;. The complete potential then becomes

V( r ) = - q P cos
..2 0 -
F . 0 . 0
qr sm F sm cos <jJ
C. Phonon-assisted tunneling 41T,or
The emission enhancement due to phonon-assisted tun- - qrF cos OF cos O. (26)
neling is shown in Fig. 6 with the complete field effect. This
calculation represents the Au level in silicon at 0.54 eV be- In the hemisphere cos 0 < 0, this potential forms an infi-
low the conduction band edge. We use the estimate of Lax nite repulsive barrier to the emission of electrons. Quantum
for A = 2x 10- 31 eV cm 4 for this system. mechanically, we can expect some emission in this direction,
The ionization energy is not a critical parameter for the but such a process lies beyond the limiting assumptions of
phonon assisted tunneling enhancement except at very high the Poole-Frenkel emission mechanism. For the present cal-
field strengths. This is demonstrated in Fig. 7, which shows culation we assume no emission takes place, with or without
the phonon-assisted tunneling enhancement for three values field, into this hemisphere. We also assume, as usual, that the
of E;. At low field strengths the tunneling which predomi- emission rate is unchanged in the region in which the field
nates is through a region near the top of the potential well, raises the potential barrier.
which is common to wells of any depth. The dependence on Solving for the point of maximum potential as before,
E; begins only at higher fields where the enhancement factor we have
approaches its limiting value of exp(E;lkB T). Vincenti 1 (P 121T,o) cos 0 )1/3
showed this to be true for the Coulombic potential; we have rmax = ( FsinOFsinOcos<jJ + Fcos OF cosO '
found it true for all of our model potentials. These comments
(27)
are, of course, limited to field enhancement (en,le nO ); the
emission rate itself (e nt ) will be more strongly dependent on and the change in barrier height is given by
E;. P
DE; = - (3X2- 2/3 ) ( - - c o s 0
)1/3
41T,O
V. DIPOLE POTENTIAL
A. Physical basis X(Fsin OF sin 0 cos <jJ + Fcos OF cos 0 )2/3.
(28)
A complex of two oppositely charged centers, each with
charge magnitude of Zq, is represented by a dipole potential

V(r) = qr.p , (23) Dipole Potential

41Tror r=12.9,300K, R=SA
c
Q) --8F=O
with a dipole moment given by E
Q)
- ... - . - 8F =1T14
u _.-.-.- 8F =1T12
P= !P! =Z!q!R, (24) c
o
.c ----- 8F =31T/4
where R is the distance separating the two charge centers. LDlO
c
We define the i axis to lie along P and in spherical coordi- .9
V>
V>
nates the potential becomes E
w
V(r)= -qPcos() (25)
41T,or

B. Poole-Frenkel effect
We now consider the potential in an externally applied FIG. 9. Poole-Frenkel effect e.] lena for the dipole potential for four orien-
electric field. We let F form an angle ()F with the z axis and tations of electric field.

7413 J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 52, No. 12, December 1981 Martin, Streetman, and Hess 7413

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 Unlike the other potentials studied in this work, the dipole The barrier is lowered for
potential experiences a barrier lowering which is -depen-
- 1T/2 < <.1T/2
dent. The three-dimensional Poole-Frenkel effect is thus giv-
en by a double integral which in general has no analytic solu- and for
tion. Because of the problem of fixing the limits of 1T/2 < < 31T/2,
integration, the integral falls into two cases.
Case 1: O<OF<'! 1T. 0< 0 < tan-I( - cot OF/COS ),

I J71"/2 L7T12
- d sinOdOexp[ -P8EdO,)]
21T

+ -
- 7T12
I 137T/2
21T 1/"12
d
0

L tan 'I - cot (}P'CDS 4

0
sinOdOexp[ -P8E;(0,)] + -
1 37T12
21T 1/"12
[ (cot 0 )2] -. 1/2
d 1 + _ _ F
cos
.
1 (29)

Case 2: 1T/2<OF <1T

The barrier is raised for 1T/2<<1T/2,
tan-I( - cot OF/COS ) < 0 < 1T/2,
1T/2 < < 31T/2
and for = 1 -I- J7T/2 d [ I(+
cot-OF
- )2] '"
21T - rr/2 cos
1T/2 < < 1T/2,
0<0 <tan-I( - cot OF/COS). 1 J71"12 11/"12
+ - d ()
21T _ 7T/2 tan' ( - cot F) sin 0
The barrier is lowered for cos c/J
X exp [ - P8E;(0, ) ]dO (30)

In the case OF = 0, the 0 dependence disappears and the

problem can be solved analytically. The barrier lowering
simplifies to
Dipole Potential

c
Er =12.9, R=5A, T=300K
m*=O.07ma, 8 F =0
8E; = - 1.9 (_P __ )1/3
41rc,co
F2/3 cos 8, (31)
Q)
_ ... _ ... - en lena
E
Q)
--em/ena and the Poole-Frenkel emission enhancement is given by
~104
o -.-._.- en3 /e na
.c
c ------ ent lena
W (32)
~l02
V>
.'!:' where
E
w
r = 1.9 (-_P-)
41Tc cor
1I3F2/3/kB T.
10 - ~L,-04::----'-------L----L----'--.L..L---'--':-lO:!:-'5---'-------'---.l-----L....l-l~106 The three-dimensional result is shown for several field orien-
(a) F (V/cm) tations in Fig. 9.

c. Phonon-assisted tunneling
Dipole Potential
/ The one-dimensional analysis necessary for tunneling is

c (l)
Er=12.9, R=5A, T=300K
m*= O.07ma ,8F =60
- ... - ... - en lena i
/ also complicated by the reduced symmetry of the dipole po-
tential. For all other potentials studied here, the one-dimen-
E
(l) - - enl /e na
i
./ sional analysis was done at 8 = 0, where the Poole-Frenkel
~l04
o
-._.-.- en3 /e na barrier lowering was greatest. For the dipole potential, how-
.c ------ ent lena ..././ ever, the maximum barrier lowering occurs at some Om such

c
W

910 2
./ that < Om < OF' and at = 0, as determined from Eq. (28) .
,," Differentiating the expression for BE; with respect to 0 at
w
E
.,-:=-""':=:::.--:-.::::=:;;.;;:.:;;:.:::~:.-.-.
= and setting the result equal to zero we find a solution
---------------- for 8m :
(8+Cos28.)1/2-3cose.)
o = tan-I
(
f l - .
m 2sineF
The phonon assisted tunneling and one-dimensional
FIG. 10. Full field effect for the dipole potential for two orientations of Poole-Frenkel effect are calculated at this value of e. The
electric field: (a) OF = 0; (bl OF = 60. results are shown in Fig. 10.

7414 J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 52, No. 12, December 1981 Martin, Streetman, and Hess 7414

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VI. DISCUSSION
The starting point of the work described in this paper
was the idea that the field dependence of the emission rates
might be useful to identify deep traps. Indeed we saw that the
various potentials exhibit quite different field dependences.
However, the field dependence is always dominated by the
behavior of the potential far from the central cell. A power-
ful clarification of deep levels can therefore hardly be
achieved with this method. One should be able, however, to
distinguish roughly between Coulombic, short range, dipole,
and polarization potentials.
In the case of a few deep levels in GaAs, the field depen-
dence of the emission rates has been successfully modeled by
available theories. 4.13 Such efforts were not successful, how-
ever, for the EL2level in GaAs,4 where a strongly anisotro-
pic field effect was later observed. 14 While the interpretation
of the observed anisotropy is still far from clear,15 it is most
likely due to a similar anisotropy in the defect potential. The
dipole potential is one candidate which deserves consider-
ation, although other, similarly anisotropic potentials are
equally likely at this point. A rigorous determination must
await more detailed experiments. Field dependence mea-
surements of other levels are not yet available.
The major relevance offield dependent emission rates is
therefore the evaluation of transient capacitance methods.
In the light of the above formulas, this evaluation is only
straightforward if the continuum approximation of the p-n
junction (or Schottkey barrier) built-in field is appropriate.
In view of the highly nonlinear character of the formulas
presented above, it is highly unlikely that such a case exists.
The distance of the deep level to the next shallow doping
impurity will enter the emission behavior, and pairing, etc.,
can be of utmost importance. It is clear that under such cir-
cumstances the continuum approximation of the built in
field is poor and an accurate determination of the energy of a
deep level using the above formulas can be expected only if
the field dependence is weak.
This makes the study of deep levels in alloys using tran-
sient capacitance methods difficult. In addition to the "shal-
7415 J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 52, No. 12, December 1981
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low dopant field," high fields exist in alloys due to composi-
tional disorder and/or cluster formation. IS
The actual value of this "alloy field" depends on details
such as cluster size, etc., which are hard to estimate. Fur-
thermore, in many instances the approximation of the alloy
effect on the deep level by a microscopic fluctuating field will
be poor.
It seems to be a fact, however, that the field dependence
of emission rates is much stronger in ternary alloys than in
binary compounds or elemental semiconductors. This in
turn indicates that the field dependence itself is easier to
study in the alloy where the external fields can be rather low.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was supported by the Office of Naval Re-
search. We are grateful for fruitful discussions with 1. D.
Dow, A. Bhattacharyya, and 1. Blaisdell, and to G. Vincent
for providing a copy of his thesis. We also acknowledge the
help of the MACSYMA computer system- a product of the
Mathlab group of the Laboratory for Computer Science at
MIT. The work of the Mathlab group is supported in part by
the United States Energy Research and Development Ad-
ministration and by the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration.
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Martin, Streetman, and Hess 7415