Date of Award
Summer 1962
Document Type
Thesis - Restricted
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
Electrical and Computer Engineering
First Advisor
Greener, E. H.
Second Advisor
Horgan, J. D.
Third Advisor
Hirthe, Walter M.
Abstract
A very feasible explanation of the observed nonohmic conductivity of near- stoichiometric rutile subject to high electric fields is that electrons, which "boil off" from metal contacts, are injected into the material. The objective of this investigation was to see whether this injection of electrons could be experimentally detected. The method which was used in the attempt to detect injection was similar to the so called "Haynes and Shockley Method." This method has proved to be very successful with germanium and silicon (but not with any other material), providing proof of minority carrier injection in these materials, and enabling the mobility of such carriers to be measured directly. The results obtained with near-stoichiometric rutile using the Haynes and Shockley method did not supply any evidence of electron injection. Measurements of current as a function of voltage, using a pulsed applied voltage as employed in the Haynes and Shockley method, showed that near-stoichiometric ruile is ohmic under such a condition even at very high electric fields. (All reported observations of the nonhomic behavior have been made using DC applied voltages.) It follows that the onset of the nonhmic behavior in near-stoichiometric rutile does not occur until some time folling the application of a DC voltage across a specimen. Such a process could not be purley electronic in nature; hence, it must be concluded that the nonohmic conductivity of near-stoichiometric rutile is not due to the injection of electrons.
Recommended Citation
Fitzgerald, Desmond J., "An Investigation of the Injection of Electrons into Near-Stiochiometric Rutile" (1962). Master's Theses (1922-2009) Access restricted to Marquette Campus. 4570.
https://epublications.marquette.edu/theses/4570