METALLIC STATE OF AMORPHOUS ANTIMONY

In amorphous antimony condensates, besides the normal semiconducting state (a-Sb), the metallic state (a(m)-Sb) is present (during condensation on an amorphous bismuth layer). The conductivity, sigma, of the amorphous metallic Sb layer, with approximately 20 nm thickness, at T = 20 K, is higher by approximately six orders of magnitude than sigma for a-Sb. Unlike the exponential dependence lg sigma is similar to T-1/4 for a-Sb, a linear dependence sigma(T) is similar to T is observed in the case of a(m)-Sb at T < 70 K. The results obtained mean that, unlike a-Sb where E(F) < E(c) (E(F) is the Fermi energy and E(c) is the mobility threshold), for a(m)-Sb the conditions are E(F) > E(c).