Interaction between Amorphous Semiconductor Thin Film and Electron Beam

The first year of research has led to a good understanding of the physical basis which determines the potential performance characteristics of an amorphous semiconductor electron beam memory. The effort during the second year has been to determine quantitatively the factors, electron beam readout and write sensitivities, which are crucial to the memory performance characteristics. Understanding of the nature of electron beam read-out sensitivity has been extended. In addition, an extensive series of measurements of this sensitivity on a range of Ge-based amorphous semiconductor thin films has been made. These results enabled the author to map out the potential performance regions of this type of electron beam memory. These measurements and their implication on the memory performance are reported here. Finally the author has attempted to determine the possible enhancement of the write or the crystallization process in these films by the electronic nature of the electron beam.