Giant Temperature Coefficient of Resistivity and Cryogenic Sensitivity in Silicon with Galvanically Displaced Gold Nanoparticles in Freeze-Out Region

The temperature coefficient of resistivity (TCR) and cryogenic sensitivity (S_v) of p-type silicon (p-Si) in the low-temperature region (10-30 K) are remarkably improved by increasing the coverage of galvanically displaced Au nanoparticles (NPs). By increase of the galvanic displacement time from 10 to 30 s, the average surface roughness (R_a) of the samples increases from 0.31 to 2.31 nm and the coverage rate of Au NPs increases from 3.1% to 21.9%. In the freeze-out region of the sample, an up to 103% increase of TCR and dramatically improved S_v of p-Si (∼5813%) are observed with Au coverage of 21.9% compared to p-Si without galvanically displaced Au NPs. By means of a finite element method (FEM) simulation study, it was found that the increase of surface roughness and a number of Au NPs on p-Si results in a higher temperature gradient and thermoelectric power to cause the unusual TCR and S_v values in the samples.