A.C. properties of discontinuous metal thin films

Conductivity and Hall effect investigations have been carried out on ion beam sputtered silicon layers on spinel substrates, in a temperature range from 80 K to 600 K. For silicon layers of thickness 8 μm, the observed mobilities at room temperature were in agreement with the values for the bulk material. In silicon films of thickness 1 μm, lower values for μ were found. The difference can be interpreted by considering additional scattering at crystal defects. By making simple assumptions about the influence of these defects, a satisfactory explanation for the dependence of mobility on temperature can be given.