Unconventional but tunable phase transition above the percolation threshold by two-layer conduction in electroless-deposited Au nanofeatures on silicon substrate

Abstract

Previous research has shown that disorder, dislocation, and carrier concentration are the main factors impacting transitions in the traditional metal-insulator transition (MIT) and metal-semiconductor transition (MST). In this study, it is demonstrated that a non-traditional metal-semiconductor transition governed by two-layer conduction is possible by tuning the conducting channel of one layer of the two-layer conduction system. By means of the electroless deposition method we produced Au nanofeatures (AuNFs) on p-type silicon (p-Si) as the two-layer conduction system, controlling AuNF coverage (Au%) below and above the percolation threshold (pc). Even when the AuNF coverage percentage is larger than pc, the resistivities of the AuNFs on p-Si show MST as the temperature increases. To demonstrate this finding, we present a conduction model based upon two predominant parallel conductions by AuNFs and p-Si in the present paper. In the results, we show how the temperature of the MST (T-MST) is tuned from 145 to 232 K as Au% is changed from 82.7 to 54.3%.