Structural and electrical characteristics of vacuum-evaporated erbium fluoride thin films

Thin‐film capacitors of erbium fluoride were fabricated by thermal evaporation. The film structure was analyzed by x‐ray diffractogram and confirmed by the x‐ray small‐angle surface reflection technique. The current–voltage characteristics of these films were studied at different temperatures in the range of 300–390 K. It was observed that at high electric fields the current increases linearly with the square root of the field. The conduction mechanism was found to be predominantly by Poole–Frenkel emission in these films and is an activated process with the activation energy decreasing with increasing electric field.