Conductance Along the Interface Formed by 400 °C Pure Boron Deposition on Silicon

The conductance along the interface between an as-deposited pure boron layer and n-type Si, fabricated at 400 °C, is found to be reliably formed with high-ohmic sheet resistance values going from ~30 kΩ/sq to 1 MΩ/sq, depending on the exact substrate doping and biasing. The temperature coefficient is negative. It is proposed that this behavior is due to an interface monolayer of electron-filled acceptor states attracting an inversion layer of holes that provide ideal p+n junction behavior and lateral carrier transport unperturbed by interface defects.