Semiconductors

Study of the electrical properties of thin SmS films at high pressures

V. V. Kaminskii, N. N. Stepanov, A. A. Molodykh, S. M. Soloviev

Ioffe Institute, St. Petersburg

Abstract: The pressure-induced shift of impurity levels under hydrostatic compression (-1.9 $\times$ 10$^{-2}$ meV/MPa) at $T$ = 300 K has been derived from measurements of the behavior with temperature of the electrical resistance of thin polycrystalline SmS films on glass substrates at different pressures. The difference between the pressure-induced shifts of impurity levels in thin films and single crystals has been attributed to the effect of elastic properties of the substrate material. It has been shown that the semiconductor-metal phase transition in SmS films does not occur at pressures of up to 1000 MPa, because the impurity levels triggering the mechanism of phase transition at such pressures are not in the conduction band.

Received: 30.03.2011

 English version: Physics of the Solid State, 2011, 53:10, 1022–1024

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