Excess Modes and Enhanced Scattering in Rare-Earth Doped Amorphous Silicon Thin Films

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dc.creatorZink, B. L.
dc.creatorIslam, R.
dc.creatorSmith, David J.
dc.creatorHellman, F.
dc.date2003-10-20
dc.date2006-03-23
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-07T06:34:48Z
dc.date.available2026-07-07T06:34:48Z
dc.descriptionWe report specific heat and thermal conductivity of gadolinium- and yttrium-doped amorphous silicon thin films measured using silicon-nitride membrane-based microcalorimeters. Addition of gadolinium or yttrium to the amorphous silicon network reduces the thermal conductivity over a wide temperature range while significantly increasing the specific heat. This result indicates that a large number of non-propagating states are added to the vibrational spectrum that are most likely caused either by localized vibration of the dopant atom in a Si cage, or softening of the material forming the cage structures. High-resolution cross-sectional electron micrographs reveal columnar features in Gd-doped material which do not appear in pure amorphous silicon. Scattering from both the nanoscaled columns and the filled-cage structures play a role in the reduced thermal conductivity in the rare-earth doped amorphous semiconductor. The overall result is an amorphous solid with a large bump in $C/T^{3}$ and no plateau in thermal conductivity.
dc.description7 pages, 7 figures
dc.identifierhttps://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0310463
dc.identifierhttp://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0310463
dc.identifier.urihttp://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/99634
dc.subjectDisordered Systems and Neural Networks
dc.titleExcess Modes and Enhanced Scattering in Rare-Earth Doped Amorphous Silicon Thin Films
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