Conservation of the lateral electron momentum at a metal-semiconductor interface studied by ballistic electron emission microscopy.
We report on ballistic electron emission microscopy and spectroscopy studies on epitaxial (3-5 nm thick) Bi(111) films, grown on n-type Si substrates. The effective barrier heights of the Schottky barrier observed are 0.58 eV for the Bi/Si(100)-(2x1) and 0.68 eV for the Bi/Si(111)-(7x7). At the step edges of the epitaxial films a strong increase of the ballistic electron emission microscopy current is observed for Bi/Si(111)-(7x7), while no increase occurs for Bi/Si(100)-(2x1). These observations can be explained by the conservation of the lateral momentum of the electron at the metal-semiconductor interface.
Bobisch
C A
CA
Department of Physics, Center for Nanointegration Duisburg-Essen, University of Duisburg-Essen, 47048 Duisburg, Germany. christian.bobisch@uni-due.de
Bannani
A
A
Koroteev
Yu M
YM
Bihlmayer
G
G
Chulkov
E V
EV
Möller
R
R