Mapping of the effective electron mass in III-V semiconductors.

The effective mass in semiconductors is related to the mobility of charge carriers as well as the density of states. As electron mobility inherently influences semiconductor device performance, knowledge of the effective electron mass (me*) is important, and significant effort is applied to obtain accurate values. In this work, low-loss electron energy loss spectroscopy is exploited to produce maps showing the variation of me* with nanometer scale resolution for a range of semiconductors. The alculated values of all systems have proven to be in agreement with the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]