Rectifying Process in Surface Barrier Detectors

As a part of research on surface barrier detectors the formation of rectifying contacts has been studied for gold on n-type silicon. It has been observed that rectifying properties appear only if the ambient gas gives negative surface charges upon adsorption. Experiments have been performed with several gases (air, oxygen...). During the formation process, the variation of reverse current is strongly modified if a d. c. field is applied. This effect shows the importance of oxygen ions in the process leading to inversion layer.