Electrical characteristics of GaAs nanocrystalline thin film

GaAs nanocrystalline thin films containing 7–15 nm size crystallites were synthesized by an electrodeposition technique. A thin surface Ga2O3 layer was detected due to atmospheric oxidation of the GaAs nanocrystals. The above films were electrically characterized by the capacitance–voltage studies of the Au/nano-GaAs Schottky junctions. The effect of the nanostructure was fairly realized in the capacitance–voltage characteristics by the observation of capacitance peaks arising due to the trapping of the charge carriers by the surface states. The capacitance–voltage characteristics were recorded both at low and high frequencies of the impressed ac signal in order to identify the effect of the surface states on the behavior of the capacitance of the device.