Electrical and optical characterization of GdSi2 and ErSi2 alloy thin films

Abstract

GdSi2 and ErSi2 polycrystalline thin films were studied using electrical resistivity in the temperature range 10–900 K, Hall effect from 10–300 K and reflectivity spectra from 0.2–100 μm at room temperature. Composition and structure in these films were investigated by Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy and x-ray diffraction techniques. These silicides are metallic with (i) a remarkable difference in their residual resistivity, (ii) a phonon contribution to the resistivity which showed a negative deviation linearity, and (iii) low energy interband transitions. Resistivity data indicated that GdSi2 and ErSi2 have a Debye temperature of 328 and 300 K respectively and a limiting resistivity value much higher than that observed in other transition metal disilicides. The charge carrier concentration was estimated to be 4×1021 cm−3 at room temperature according to Hall measurements, and the mean free path was 63 Å and 320 Å for GdSi2 and ErSi2, respectively, at 10 K. The parameters obtained by the optical analysis are in good agreement with those extracted from the transport measurements, thus permitting one to obtain a reasonable value for the Fermi velocity.