Thermally assisted tunnelling in dielectric films (II)

Current–voltage characteristics for thermally assisted tunnelling (TAT) through simple specific barrier shapes are compared with those previously described for a rectangular barrier model. Physical situations where TAT may be important are also discussed. These include conduction through band tail states in amorphous semiconductors and minority carrier injection into phosphors. An explanation of the Meyer-Neldel rule in terms of TAT is also given.