Amorphous group IV semiconductors

The amorphous Group IV semiconductors are of technological significance and scientific importance. As an example of the former, amorphous Si has widespread use in thin-film transistors while, as an example of the latter, structural determinations of amorphous Ge are invaluable in assessing the validity of Continuous Random Network models. The application of XAS to the study of the elemental and binary amorphous Group IV semiconductors is now described and we demonstrate XAS is an ideal technique to study the structural and vibrational properties of these materials. A commonality in amorphous phase structure is apparent including an increase in disorder and bondlength and a decrease in coordination number relative to the crystalline phase.