Positive Magnetoresistance in Hydrogenated Amorphous Alloys Silicon Nickel a-Si_1-yNiy:H at Very Low Temperature with Magnetic Field

Abdelfattah Narjis, Abdelhamid El kaaouachi, Jamal Hemine, Abdelghani Sybous, Lhoussine Limouny, Said Dlimi, Rachid Abdia, Gerard Buskipski

Laboratoire de Physique de la Matière Condensée, Département de Physique, Faculté des Sciences et Techniques de Mohammadia, Mohammedia, Morocco.
Laboratoire de Spectroscopie Hertzienne LSH, Université de LilleI, Villeneuve d’Ascq Cedex, France.
Research Group ESNPS, Physics Department, Faculty of Sciences, University Ibn Zohr, Agadir, Morocco.

DOI: 10.4236/jmp.2012.36061                

Abstract

We present results of an experimental study of magnetoresistance phenomenon in an amorphous silicon-nickel alloys a-Si_1-yNi_y:H:H (where y = 0.23) on the insulating side of the metal-insulator transition (MIT) in presence of magnetic field up to 4.5 T and at very low temperature. The electrical resistivity is found to follow the Efros-Shklovskii Variable Range Hopping regime (ES VRH) with T ^-1/2. This behaviour indicates the existence of the Coulomb gap (CG) near the Fermi level.

Keywords

Amorphous Silicon-Nickel Alloys a-Si_1-yNi_y:H; Variable Range Hopping Conductivity; Metal Insulator Transition; Positive Magnetoresistance

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	N. F. Mott, “Conduction in Glasses Containing Transition Metal Ions,’’ Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids, Vol. 1, No. 1, 1968, pp. 1-17. doi:10.1016/0022-3093(68)90002-1
[2]	Mott, N. F., “Metal-Insulator Transitions,” Taylor and Francis, London, 1974.
[3]	B. I. Shklovskii and A. L. Efros, “Electronic Properties of Doped Semiconductors,” Springer, Berlin, 1984.
[4]	L. Efros and B. I. Shklovskii, “Coulomb Gap and Low- Temperature Conductivity of Disordered Systems,” Journal of Physics C: Solid State Physics, Vol. 8, No. 4, 1975, p. 49.
[5]	A. El kaaouachi, A. Nafidi and G. Biskupski, “Positive and Negative Magnetoresistance on Both Sides of the Metal-Insulator Transition in Metallic N-Type InP,” Semiconductors Sciences and Technology, Vol. 18, No. 2, 2003, pp. 69-74.
[6]	R. Abdia, A. El kaaouachi, A. Nafidi and J. Himine, “Positive Magnetoresistance Behaviour in the Insulating Side of the Metal-Insulator Transition in CdSe,” Physica B: Condensed Matter, Vol. 373, No. 1, 2006, pp. 96-99. doi:10.1016/j.physb.2005.11.096
[7]	A. El kaaouachi, R. Abdia and A. Nafidi, “Positive Magnetoresistance in the Variable Range Hopping Regime in CdSe, Physica E: Low-Dimensional Systems and Nanostructures,’’ Physica E: Low-Dimensional Systems and Nanostructures, Vol. 32, No. 1-2, 2006, pp. 419- 421.
[8]	R. Abdia, A. El kaaouachi, A. Nafidi, G. Biskupski and J. Hemine, “Variable Range Hopping Conductivity and Negative Magnetoresistance in N-Type InP Semiconductor,” Journal of Solid State Electronics, Vol. 53, No. 5, 2009, pp. 469-472. doi:10.1016/j.sse.2009.02.002
[9]	A. El kaaouachi, R. Abdia, A. Nafidi and G. Biskupski, “Crossover Phenomenon for Variable Range Hopping Conduction and Positive Magnetoresistance in Insulating N-Type InP,’’ Journal of Annales de Chimie Sciences des Matériaux France, Vol. 33, No. 4, 2008, pp. 357-364.
[10]	A. Mobius, “The Metal-Semiconductor Transition in Amorphous Si1?xCrx Films: Phenomenological Model for the Metallic Region,” Zeitschrift Für Physik B Condensed Matter, Vol. 80, No. 2, 1990, pp. 213-223. doi:10.1007/BF01357505
[11]	R. Rosenbaum, A. Heines, A. Palevski, M. Karpovski, A. Gladkikh, M. Pilosof, A. J. Daneshvar, M. R Graham, T. Wright, J. T. Nicholls, C. J. Adkins, M. Witcomb, V. Prozesky, W. Przybylowicz and R. Pretorius, “Metallic Trans- port Properties of Amorphous Nickel Silicon Films,” Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, Vol. 9, No. 25, 1997, pp. 5395-5411. doi:10.1088/0953-8984/9/25/008
[12]	A. Heinrich, H. Vinzelberg, D. Elefant and C. Gladun, “Conductivity and Agnetoconductivity of Amorphous CrxGe1?x near the Metal-Insulator Transition,” Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids, Vol. 164-166, 1993, pp. 513-516. doi:10.1016/0022-3093(93)90602-T
[13]	S. Yoshizumi, T. H. Geballe, M. Kunchur and W. L. McLean, “Magnetoresistance of Amorphous MoxGe1?x near the Metal-Insulator Transition,” Physical Review B, Vol. 37, No. 12, 1988, pp. 7094-7097. doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.37.7094
[14]	H. Tokumoto, R. Mans?eld and M. J. Lea, “Correlation Effects in Variable-Range Hopping Conduction in N- Type Indium Antimonide below l K,” Philosophical Magazine Part B, Vol. 46, No. 2, 1982, pp. 93-113. doi:10.1080/13642818208246427
[15]	P. Youzou Zang, O. Dai, M. Levy and M. P. Sarachik, “Probind the Colomb Gap in Insulating N-Type CdSe” Physical Review Letters, Vol. 64, No. 22, 1990, pp. 2687- 2690. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.64.2687
[16]	S. C. Baliss, R. Assal, E. A, Davis and T. West, “OJDOS Evidence for a Semiconductor-to-Metal Transition in a-Si1-yNiy:H,” Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, Vol. 3, No. 7, 1991, pp. 793-800. doi:10.1088/0953-8984/3/7/004
[17]	M. Iqbal, J. Galibert, J. Léotin, S. Askenazy, S. Waffenschmidt and J. Wosnitza, “Coulomb Gap Shrinkage in Compensated Si:(P,B) in High Magnetic Fields,” Physica B: Condensed Matter, Vol. 246-247, 1998, pp. 282-285. doi:10.1016/S0921-4526(97)00916-2