Percolation in semiconductors with disordered regions: Electrical conductivity and hall coefficient

Abstract The semiconductor-to-insulator transition in fast neutron irradiated n-germanium has been studied. A percolation theory model involving insulator spheres is proposed to describe properties of irradiated semiconductors with disordered regions (DR.), which is used to calculate the conductivity and Hall coefficient in lightly doped germanium. This model yields a percolation threshold of Pc=0.77±0.01 for the residual host lattice. Kirchhoff's equations for the longitudinal and transverse conductivity were used to calculate the Hall coefficient. A comparison of experimental data with theory provided the possibility of determining the dose dependence of the effective radius of the space charge layer surrounding a DR.