Transient-Capacitance Measurement of the Grain Boundary Levels in Semiconductors

The transient response of a grain boundary to a voltage pulse is discussed in terms of the basic capture and emission processes at the boundary states. This model is used to interpret the deep-level transient spectroscopy spectrum of a low-angle tilt boundary with a known dislocation structure in a germanium bicrystal. A characteristic level is found at 0.42 eV below the bottom of the conduction band; the number of states at this level is about ${10}^9$ ${\mathrm{cm}}^{-2\mathrm{}}$ and their capture cross section for electrons is 5×${10}^{-12\mathrm{}}$ ${\mathrm{cm}}^2$.