Eur. Phys. J. B 11, 491-496 (1999)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s100510050960

Two-dimensional electron systems in inversion layers of p-type Hg_0.8Zn_0.2Te metal-insulator-semiconductor structures

Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, INSA, CS 14315, 35043 Rennes Cedex, France

Received: 9 February 1999
Published online: 15 October 1999

Abstract

Strong oscillations on capacitance and conductance have been observed in p-type metal-insulator-semiconductor structures, made by using a recent process for the interface passivation. This behaviour is attributed to a two-dimensional electron gas in the n-inversion layer and the variation of the conductance maximums with temperature indicates that the dominant perpendicular transport mechanism for electrons is an incoherent two-step tunnelling through deep levels in the gap. Three models have been used to describe the quantum confinement: the simple variational method, the triangular potential approximation and the propagation matrix method. The later approach takes into account the non parabolicity of the conduction band structure and uses a finite height barrier at the insulator-semiconductor interface. A very good agreement between experimental and calculated values for the two lowest subband energy is obtained.