Imprint electric field controlled electronic transport in TlGaSe2 crystals

The effect of built-in electric field onto the dc electrical conductivity, photoconductivity, and electrical switching phenomenon were investigated in TlGaSe2 layered semiconductor within the temperature range of 77-300 K. We have used different types of electrodes for different TlGaSe2 samples in both parallel and perpendicular directions to the plane of layers. The effect of electric field was investigated by cooling the samples from the room temperature under the electric field and then removing it at similar to 80 K. After the procedure, it was found that a built-in internal electric field which strongly affects transport properties appears in TlGaSe2 crystals. Substantial increasing of both dark currents and photo-conductivities were observed predominantly at low temperatures, where hopping was the main conductivity mechanism. The anomalous decrease of the activation energy in the low temperature region and the switching effect are also the main experimental findings of the present work. Such behavior can be understood by assuming that the built-in electric field greatly increases the contribution of the hopping conductivity at low temperatures. Obtained results are discussed on the basis of the models widely used for disordered semiconductors. It was shown that TlGaSe2 crystal demonstrates the peculiar behavior that is typical to such type of semiconductors. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.