Effect of using a high-purity Fe source on the transport properties of p-type β-FeSi2 grown by molecular-beam epitaxy

Intentionally undoped p-type β-FeSi2 thin films were grown on Si(111) substrates by molecular-beam epitaxy using low-purity (4N) and high-purity (5N) Fe sources to investigate the effect of using a high-purity Fe source on the electrical properties of β-FeSi2. The hole mobility increased and the hole density decreased greatly as the annealing temperature and time were increased, particularly for the β-FeSi2 films produced using 5N-Fe. The observed temperature dependence of the hole mobility was reproduced well by considering various carrier scattering mechanisms due to acoustic-phonon, polar-optical phonon, nonpolar-optical phonon, and ionized impurities.