Sensors and Actuators, 2 (1982) 329 - 341 329

SEMICONDUCTOR GAS SENSORS

S ROY MORRISON
Physzcs Department, Simon Fraser Unzverslty, Burnaby, B C V5AlS6 (Canada)

Abstract

The various ways that gaseous species can affect the resistance of a seml-
conductor are discussed, with particular emphasis on those where the effect 1s
reversible and, hence, suitable for gas sensing These latter include reduction/
oxldatlon of the semiconductor, amon exchange with the semrconductor, ad-
sorption directly on the semiconductor and adsorption by reaction with a
surface state The requirements on the semiconductor are discussed, and it 1s
concluded that oxide semiconductors are usually required Means to mcrease
the sensltlvlty and speclflclty of the gas sensor are discussed, mcludmg the
form of the semiconductor, catalysts and mtentlonally added surface states

Introduction

Smce the clarlflcatlon by Brattam and Bardeen of 1952 [ 1] and follow-

up work 121, and perhaps earlier, it has been well known why the resistance
of semiconductors IS very sensitive to adsorption from the gaseous ambient
surrounding It From this understanding to the use of semiconductors as gas
sensors Is, m principle, a small step
Unfortunately, it was quickly found that there are many problems
Semiconductors are sensltlve to the partial pressure of too many gases, m-
cludmg water vapor The resistance IS often not reversible or reproducible
when the gaseous ambient 1s restored to its mltlal condltlon And, m the best
understood form of the semiconductor, the single crystal, the resistance
change IS too small for practical interest, and one must look to more comph-
cated forms of the semiconductor The present dlscusslon 1s to review the ba-
sic reasons for these problems and how they are being overcome Other prob-
lems, such as speed of response, stablhty and hfetlme of the devices are often
related, but will not be expllcltly discussed here
There are many ways that the gaseous ambient can change the conductl-
vlty of a senuconductor Some of these are unacceptable for our purposes
For example, the growth of an oxide film, or any other nreverslble surface
reaction or absorption will change the resistance, so naturally such reactions
must be avoided Etchmg of the semiconductor 1s another example of a sur-
face reaction that IS unacceptable There are many reactions that are, how-

0250/6874/82/0000-0000/$02 75 0 Elsemer Sequola/Pnnted m The Netherlands

330

ever, acceptable and have been used m attempts to make semiconductor gas
sensors For example, there 1s reduction or oxldatlon of the sample, there 1s
amon exchange by a gaseous species, there 1s adsorption, either bonding to
the bare surface or bonding to a previously adsorbed species Each of these
processes IS reversible and each can be used m gas sensmg Actually, m many
proposed or commercial devices, It 1s not clear which of the above reactions
dommates, but it 1s well to be aware of the various posslbllltles
In the followmg we will first discuss the various “acceptable” forms of
gas mteractlon with the semiconductor surface, then discuss the various
types of semiconductors that are “acceptable” for mvestlgatlon as potential
gas sensors Finally, we ml1 discuss the vanous ways of mcreasmg the sensl-
tlvlty and speclflclty of the various gas/semiconductor systems, based on the
models of gas/sohd interaction and the properties of the semiconductors
Examples to Illustrate the vmous pomts will be drawn from studies both of
our own and of others

Interaction of gases with semiconductor surfaces

A Reductlon/oxlda twn of the semrconduc tor

In many compound semiconductors the electrons or holes that provide
the conductance anse because of non-stolchlometry of the matenal So If we
affect the stolchlometry by the gaseous ambient, we affect the conductance
In tltamum dioxide, for example, there 1s sometimes excess tltamum, and,
because of this excess of the metal, electrons are present m the conduction
band of the material As the material approaches stolchlometry (assummg no
other electroactwe impurity 1s present), the resistance of the semiconductor
becomes extremely high Cuprous oxide often has an excess of oxygen Ions,
and the correspondmg cation vacancies trap electrons from the valence bonds
m the crystal These empty valence bonds, these holes, provide a high con-
ductlvlty by moving freely through the crystal As we oxldlze or reduce el-
ther of these compounds by oxygen or reducmg agents, the conductlvlty
changes
Now, most effective catalysts for the oxldatlon of organic molecules
exchange lattice oxygen with the organic molecules In other words, m the
presence of the reducing agent, these sohds are known to gs~e up lattice oxy-
gen (be reduced), and m the presence of oxygen they become re-oxldlzed
Thus, m the catalytic hterature are many examples of semiconductors that
could be used as gas sensors on a redox prmclple As an example from our
own studies [ 31, there 1s the case of bismuth molybdate, where It was found
that below 250 “C the conductance was determined by the removal and de-
posit of adsorbed oxygen (see below) whereas above 250 “C, the conductance
was determined by the removal and deposit of lattice oxygen Figure I shows
the rapld mcrease m conductlvlty due to reduction by propylene Conduc-
tance measurements with oxygen and propylene both present have not been
made, but e s r measurements [ 4 ] show rapid equlhbrlum of the stolchlo-
 331

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
TIME Immutes)

Fig 1 Increase of conductance with tnne for bismuth molybdate m the presence of I.0
Torr C$-Ic at the temperatures mdlcated Before tune zero, the bismuth molybdate was
oxldlzed m 150 Torr oxygen at 330 “C until a particular conductance was reached, then
the oxygen evacuated, the temperature adjusted, and C~HS admltted

metry at temperatures near 400 “C These studies were made to mvestrgate

catalysis, not gas sensing, so the potential and the problems as a gas sensor
were not explored for this system The catalytic hterature IS nch with well-
studied systems of this type
There are a few cases where reduction and oxldatlon of the semlconduc-
tor has been the process assumed for a candidate gas sensor For example,
Stetter [ 51 used cobalt oxide to detect CO, proposmg a redox model, and It
1s well known that lattice oxygen 1s exchanged dunng the oxldatlon of CO
on cobalt oxide Gutman and his coworkers [ 6,7] consldered TIOz as a sensor
for oxygen m the high temperature regime where the stolchlometry of TIOz
depends on the oxygen pressure (czrcar 900 “C) Figure 2 from their work m-
dlcates for this case [ 7] the two resons of sensltlvlty, due to adsorption at
low temperature, reductlon/oxldatlon at high temperature Hlshmuma [8] ,
using ZnO to detect hydrogen atoms, observed that m vacuum the effect 1s
lrreverslble and cumulative, mdlcatmg probably reduction of the ZnO, al-
though perhaps it could mdlcate the m-diffusion of hydrogen atoms that act
as mterstltlal donors Myasmkov and his coworkers [9] conclude that at the
temperatures of mterest either mterstltlal H or Zn could diffuse fast enough
to equilibrate with a thin film of ZnO As a final example, we can cite the
332

150

100

u”
‘1. RO-/RO

3
H
%
cl2 + 2e = 20
50
Fl+o- - Fa+e-

- 0 /o,

10

1 5 9 12
1dt”C

Fig 2 Steady-state resistance of T10z samples us temperature The oxygen pressure 1s

3 x 10m2 Torr Curve 1 results on a deposlted layer, Curve 2 results on TlOz obtamed by
oxldlzlng a Tl foil
Fig 3 The band model and chemical formulation of the lnteractlon of a reducing agent R
with adsorbed oxygen

work of Pink and h1s coworkers [lo] who suggest that a combined redox
and adsorption process 1s involved 1n the senslt1vlty of SnOa to hydrocarbon
at 500 “C

9 Ion exchange
Another mechanism of surface interaction between a gas and a semi-
conductor that ~11 have a strong mfluence on the conductlvlty of the semi-
conductor 1s 1on exchange The concept of 1on exchange of amens IS, of
course, best known 1n solution chemistry, and, of course, the reversible ex-
change ot sodium and calcium or other ions 1s the basis of the water softening
mdustry In the gas phase, we have observed [ 111 the 1on exchange on T10,
between CS2 and T10,, leading to a highly conductive surface layer on the
T10, Others [ 121 have observed the sulf1d1ng of Moo2 by H,S 1n a surface
layer m the preparation of a hydrodesulfunzatlon catalyst More directly,
WOB 1s completely converted to WS2 at temperatures slightly over 300 “C by
a few torr of H2S [ 13, 143 The Rexnord, thin film H2S sensor 1151, based
on W03, operates 1n the neighborhood of 200 “C, close enough to suggest
surface sulf1d1ng
Thus, although experiments to support or disprove the hypothesis have
not come to our attention, 1t seems highly probable that the commercial H2S
sensors based on Sn02 and on WOB, where thin films of the oxide semi-
conductors are used and where the conductance of the film mcreases with
the partial pressure of H2S 1n a1r, rely on an 1on-exchange mechamsm This
suggestion 1s based simply on the above observations and the expectation
that exchanging adsorbed sulfide ions for adsorbed oxygen ions would not
be expected to induce a large resistance change
 333

C Adsorptwn
This 1s the mechanism most often quoted as the dominant mechanism
expected for semiconductor gas sensors In Its sunplest form, the gas atom
simply adsorbs on the surface if it 1s a reducing agent, it mJects one or two
electrons mto the semiconductor, rf it 1s an oxldlzmg agent, it extracts one
or two electrons from the semiconductor In either case, if the semlconduc-
tor has a high surface-to-volume ratio and Its bulk density of carriers 1s low,
the inJected tamers can change the effective number of carriers m the solid
many fold
In prmclple, to detect reducing agents one would wish to use an n-type
semiconductor vvlth mltlally few bulk electrons, because the fractional change
m conductance due to the added electrons will be high Sunllarly, one would
wish to use a p-type semiconductor with few bulk holes to detect oxldlzmg
agents, because of the better sensltlvlty upon removing electrons (addmg
holes) as the oxldlzmg agent 1s adsorbed In practice, there seems only one
clear case where the simple adsorption model has been applied, and that 1s
the adsorptlon of oxygen, either from O2 or NO, In this case, at an mter-
mediate temperature with an oxide catalyst, one can have reversible oxygen
adsorption, removmg electrons from the semiconductor This has been done
normally on n-type semiconductors - because holes break bonds, so that on
p-type semiconductors oxygen exchange 1s probably at least partially lattice
oxygen at any temperature where the kmetlcs of hole exchange are rapid It
is not easy to fmd the intermediate temperature for p-type matenal - a tem-
perature where only adsorptlon/desorptlon 1s fast but lattice oxygen exchange
1s slow Thus, some studies of adsorptlon/desorptlon of oxygen on TIOz 171
and of adsorption of NO, on SnOz (presumably adsorbmg as O-) [16] re-
present examples of the few systems where sunple adsorption may apply
Figure 2 1s reproduced for the paper by Gutman, showing peaks m oxygen
sensltlvlty, where the peak at low temperature could, m prmclple, be used m
oxygen sensing
The reason why, when gases other than oxygen are sensed by n-type
materials, simple adsorption 1s not the probable mechamsm, 1s because with
measurements m air oxygen 1s always adsorbed The adsorption of other gases
1s normally not simple adsorption, but adsorption through a reaction with
the surface state associated with pre-adsorbed oxygen, as discussed m the
next subsection

I3 Surface states
More generally, the mfluence of the adsorbed gas arises by an mteractlon
v&h a surface state, usually a surface state associated with adsorbed oxygen
Figure 3 shows, using on the one hand a band model and on the other hand the
chemical reaction scheme, how a reducing agent R will interact with adsorbed
oxygen, become oxidized (because the energy level of the R-O- bond 1sabove
the conduction band edge), and desorb as the product, leavmg the electron m
the conduction band This 1scatalytic oxldatlon of the reducmg agent In air, a
steady state will be obtamed m the catalytic oxldatlon that will lead to a
334

-0;

Strong Bondmg of 0; Weak Bondmg of 0;

Fig 4 The neutralrzatlon of surface electric fields by physically adsorbed water, leadmg
to neutrallzatlon of attractive &es for the formatlon of 0-i:

steady-state conductance dependent on the partial pressure of R

This mode of operation 1s the mode suggested for most of the oxide sen-
sors for reduculg agents that are slmllar to the Taguchl sensor [ 17, 181 The
mechanism has been discussed m detal m other reviews 119, 201
A more difficult system to analyze 1s the adsorption of polarlzable mol-
ecules, the prune example being water In the case of water, It 1s unlikely for
most semiconductors of interest that a water molecule will capture or mJect
electrons, and it 1s unhkely that it will chemically combine with oxygen, yet
it has been known for many years that on most semiconductors water mduces
electron injection [ 21 Boyle and Jones [ 181 suggest that the water drpoles
lme up so as to attract electrons to the surface of the semiconductor How-
ever, this appears to be a highly endothermic process
Possibly a more likely process 1s the neutrahzatlon of surface electric
fields by the presence of physlcally adsorbed water This will change the sur-
face state energy of oxygen In Fig 4, we illustrate the concept With no phy-
slcally adsorbed water, the surface electric fields at the oxide surface ~111 only
be partially neutralized by chemlsorbed water There will still be sites that
attract 0, ions and lower the energy level of the electron on the 0, As more
water 1s adsorbed, now physlcally adsorbed water, the dipoles ml1 lme up
neutralizing any apparently charged sites, and the electron on the oxygen 0;
~11 not be m such a favorable energy level Thus, the equlllbrlum concentra-
tion of adsorbed oxygen will be lower and the oxygen will desorb, restoring
the conduction band (or valence band for p-type) electron Additionally,
there will be energy-level fluctuations as normally associated with a polar me-
dium [21] that will catalyze the desorptlon process Thus, the water effect
will be rapid
As discussed m the next sectlon, it 1s this unfortunate sensltlvvlty of
semiconductors to the vapor pressure of water that hmlts the appllcatlon of
semiconductor gas sensors to high temperature condltlons where physical ad-
sorption of water 1s mmlmlzed

Sermconductors of mterest

As mentioned earlier, two types of gas/semiconductor reactions cannot

be permitted on any semiconductor under conslderatlon for a sensor One 1s
 335

the growth of a film on the semiconductor m the gaseous ambient of mter-

est, the other 1s etching of the semiconductor m the gaseous ambient of m-
terest
The requirement that film growth should be avolded leads almost mev-
ltably to the use of oxide semiconductors for measurements m ar The
growth of an oxide film on elemental, III/V, or chalcogemde semiconductors
normally ~11 preclude their use An exception 1s the ISFET case, where a
thick oxide 1s already grown on the slhcon, so no further oxldatlon ~111occur
at the temperatures of mterest But, normally, oxide semiconductors must
be chosen
Another requirement, normally, 1s that the oxide be usable at elevated
temperature to avold as much as possible the changes associated with varymg
relative humidity Most gas sensors are operated at a temperature of the order
of 150 “C or above In our laboratory, we tested Ag,O as a CO sensor Because
of stolchlometry changes, this material 1s unusable above about 220 “C, and
at temperatures sufflclently low that stolchlometry was no problem water
vapor problems precluded its use The sensor concept had to be discarded

Techmques to improve the sensltlvlty and selectlvlty of semlconductmg gas

sensors

A Senatrv~ty
Many different ways to mcrease the sensltlvlty of semiconductors to
their gaseous ambient have been used Unfortunately, the cleanest form of
the semiconductor, the smgle crystal, cannot easily be made sufflclently sen-
sitive The number of electrons exchanged with the surface 1s too small a
fraction of the total number of electrons m the crystal to be easily detected
The bulk conductance of a semiconductor IS given by
G = nqpwt/L mhos , (1)

where n 1s the bulk carrier concentration, p the moblhty of electrons (or

holes) and w, t and L are the vvldth, thickness and length of the sample, re-
spectively If An, carlners per unit area are added from the surface, the con-
ductance mcreases by
AG = An,q = pw/L mhos (2)
Thus, a measure of the sensltwvlty 1s
AG/G = AnJnt (31
A normal surface adsorptlon (e g , the adsorption of 0,) will exchange car-
riers to the order of n, = 101” electrons/cm2 TypIcally, an oxide semlconduc-
tor may have n the order of 10 l’ electrons/cm3 m Its conduction band Thus,
mth a wafer with t the order of 0 01 cm there ~11 be little sensltlvlty to oxy-
gen adsorption or other surface reactions
The sensltwlty 1s increased by using thm film If the film 1s low6 cm
thick, using the same example values as above, we find AG/G = 10, so the
336

film will be very sensitive indeed These numbers are for lllustratlon and may
vary considerably
In the case of sensors based on the reductlon/oxldatlon prmclple, the
same thm-film approach 1s necessary but now the oblect 1s to reach equlhb-
rlum quickly
The sensltlvlty can be mcreased by bulk compensation of the semlcon-
ductor Thus, for example, Al 1s mcorporated mto SnOz to trap conduction
band electrons and lower the bulk electron den&y n m this n-type semlcon-
ductor This 1s found to make the matenal more sensltlve to oxygen adsorp-
tion [ZZ] The calculation above indicates the reason A detailed theory for
this approach does not seem to have been worked out
Sensltlvlty can be increased d one measures the reverse diode character-
&,lcs rather than measurmg simple conductlvlty In this method of operation,
the carriers must cross a potential barrier, and the obJect IS to have the po-
tential barrier of mterest controlled by the gas adsorption or absorption Then
the current, varying exponentially with the barrier height, will be very sense-
tlve to the gaseous amblent The effect of gaseous amblent on diode charac-
terlstlcs on germamum was studied extensively many years ago [ 231, but
was never reproducible enough for conslderatlon m gas sensing With modern
techniques, partrcularly usmg slhcon, perhaps this approach could be revived
More recently, Yamamoto and his coworkers [24] and Steele and MacIver
[25] have found an effect of reducible hydrocarbons on the reverse charac-
terlstlcs of a Schottky diode of Pd on a compound semiconductor Presum-
ably, followmg the mechanism of Poteat and Lalevlc [ 251, hydrogen passes
through the palladmm and forms a double layer at a sohd/sohd rnterface, af-
fecting the barrier height as required
In the Taguchl form of semiconductor gas sensors, the material ISpre-
pared as a fine powder and pressed into a pellet, and possibly the pellet 1s
smtered for strength In this case, the mechanism for the high sensrtlvlty could
be eqmvalent to that of the thm film or could be equivalent to that of the
diode, or somethmg m between In this type of construction, presumably the
contact resistance between the grams dominates the sensor resistance If the
grams touch but are not smtered, the electrons (for n-type material) must
flow over a surface barlner to transfer from one gram to the next, as m Fig
5(a) A change m the charge on the surface states increases the surface bar-
rier V, according to the Schottky relation
V, = qNs2 /2rcc,N, (4)
where N, 1s the charge on the surface, No the charge (doping) m the semlcon-
ductor space charge region But the current from one gram to the next will
be given by [ 27 ]
I = const exp( - q V./k T) (5)
and so the current 1s extremely sensltlve to V,
At the other extreme with the pellet approach, the sample can be srn-
tered and the “necks” formed between adlacent grams can be thm, the order
 337

(b)
Fig 5 Conductance mechalusms through a pressed or smtered powder (a) Neghglble sm-
termg - the carriers must overcome the surface potential barrier to move between adja-
cent grams (b) &r&red to form “necks” - the carriers flow through a restricted channel,
the width of which 1s determmed by the surface potential barrier

of the thickness of the thm films described above [ 283 (a few hundred ang-
stroms, say) Then these necks are the resistance-controllmg feature of the
pellets, and adsorptlon of gases on the necks has the same effect as adsorp-
tion of gases on thm films The adsorption of the gas decreases the width of
the channel through which current flows (Frg 5(b)) Finally, we can have a
rmxed case, where the necks are thm enough that all the carriers m the neck
region are extracted by the adsorbed oxygen The exact thickness required
for this model depends on the doping Then, agam, the carriers must over-
come a potential barrier to traverse the neck, but the potential barner IS not
as high as the V, calculated by eqn (5) This would, from a theoretical point
of view, be a mixed effect
Any of the above models will lead to a high sensltlvlty of the pellet to
adsorbing gas Naturally, one must not produce too dense a pellet or the gas
~111not permeate to the necks, and one must not smter too much or the
necks will grow too large for “thin film” type sensltlvlty

B Speczfictty
Speclflclty 1s often a problem with semiconductor sensors, m the sense
that any adsorbate that tends to react mth adsorbed oxygen will mJect elec-
trons and any adsorbate that IS a strong oxldlzmg agent (e g , NO,) will tend
to extract electrons
Some speclficlty mses by the choice of the semiconductor The seml-
conductor 1s a catalyst and each ~111be particularly active toward one or
another reducing agent Unfortunately, there are not too many semlconduc-
tors that meet the requirements described above to be candidates for gas sen-
sors, so the choice IS mlmmal
Another approach IS to dope the semiconductor and, by dopmg, enhance
its catalytic actlvlty toward the species of interest and suppress lt toward
338

other species Ideally, such doping should have minimal effect on the bulk
electrical properties of the semiconductor Thus, for example, F1rth et al
[29] and Kanefusa et al [30] have observed changes 1n speclflclty due to
bulk doping that do not seem to be associated completely with the change 1n
the bulk conductivity of the semiconductor
Finally, a catalyst can be deposited on the surface of the film or pellet
grains The most popular of these 1s platinum or palladium [ 311, deposited
to induce spill-over of hydrogen atoms In other words, the hydrogen mole-
cule 1s dlssoclated upon adsorption on (and, possibly, absorption into) the
noble metal, and the dlssoclated hydrogen can then sp111over on to the semi-
conductor surface to react with oxygen, erther lattrce or adsorbed oxygen
The same production of hydrogen atoms may result from the adsorption of
hydrocarbons on the noble metal This technique was used, for example, by
L1 and h1s coworkers [ 321 lmpregnatlng a ZnO pellet with Pd to sensitize 1t
to hydrogen
To conclude the dlscusslon, we will descrrbe our own approach [ 321 to
creating a specific sensor, that of using surface-state additives As descmbed
above, the additive 1s chosen from the chemical literature The chem1ca.l ht-
erature 1s rich with solids used for spot tests, colonmetnc tests, catalytic ac-
tivity, etc , specific to the gas of interest Thus, the specrflclty 1s provrded
Then a semiconductor must be found that responds electrically to the pres-
ence of the additive on 1ts surface where the addltlve acts as a surface state
Preferably, we want the semiconductor to show an increased resistance when
the additive 1s deposited It 1s not difficult to find electroactlve additives, for
most of the chemically active species used m spot tests, etc , are also active
1n electron exchange Now we have a system, a reagent sensitive to the gas of
interest, together with the semiconductor that simply tests for the condltlon
of the reagent usmg an ohmeter instead of a color1meter
Two prehm1nary examples have been tested for this concept, and they
w1Il be described to illustrate the method of choosing the components of the
sensor First, consider the specific detection of xylene It was determined
from the literature that V, O5 1s an active catalyst for the oxidation of xylene,
so V,O, was chosen as the surface additive Because V205 m the bulk 1s an
n-type semiconductor with a very low conduction band energy [ 211, as a
surface additive 1t 1s expected to be an acceptor and increase the resistance
of many n-type semiconductors T102 was chosen as the basic semiconductor,
and V,O, was dispersed at a low surface coverage over the T10, surface In
pnnciple, only 101’ - 1013 atoms of V per cm2 would be necessary to control
the conductance of T102, but 1n these preliminary tests, to demonstrate the
principle, 5% by weight of V,O, was added to the surface The presence of
the V205, indeed, made the TIOz resistance sensitive to the presence of xy-
lene, as indicated 1n F1g 6 For comparison,, the sensitivity to CO, for which
V,O, 1s a less active catalyst, 1s shown
In another example, the gas NO2 was to be detected An exammatlon
of the literature indicated that the Saltzman reagent, used 1n colorlmetr1c de-
tection of N02, was very specific The Saltzman reagent 1s sulfan1hc acid Be-
 339

1o-2 1o-1 1 10
PARTIAL PRESSURE - torr

Fig 6 Fractlonal change m conductance of a TIO~ pellet impregnated with V20, Dlffer-
ent symbols refer to measurement on different days The carrier gas 1s oxygen at 1 atmos-
phere and the temperature ls 400 “C

3 x 10-G
I I I

t
50 ppm NO2

I I I
0
0 10 20 30 40
TIME (mInutesI

Fig 7 Change m conductance of an N10 Ll/sulfamhc acid pellet due to NO2 m an- Car-
rler gas, air, temperature, 100 “C

cause sulfamhc acid 1s an amme, it 1s expected to have donor properties Thus,

the semiconductor chosen was p-type m order that the sulfamhc acid m its
uncomplexed state, glvmg up electrons, would result m a high-resistance seml-
conductor support The semiconductor chosen was mckel oxide, doped with
hthlum to make it conductive and p-type Agam, m these prehmmary tests
where the prmclple was being developed, no attempt was made to maxlmlze
340

the sensltlvlty - 5% by weight of sulfamllc acid was deposited m order to

preclude the posslblhty that oxygen, not sulfamhc acid, would control the
resistance of the NIO pellet The response to NO, 1s shown m Fig 7 As the
sulfaruhc acid reaction mth NO, 1s n-reversible, the observed conductance
change was nreverslble
Unfortunately, these experiments were not continued to clanfy all the
characterrstlcs of the approach - ultimate sensltrvlty, ultimate speclflclty,
etc But, certainly, the approach has merit m possibly makmg semlconduc-
tors gas sensors that are highly sensltlve, highly speclflc, and still, offer the
mam general advantage of semiconductor gas sensors - low cost

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Biography

s Roy Mormon received his Ph D m physics at the University of Penn-

sylvama Since then he has had appomtments at the Umverslty of Ilhnols,
Honeywell, SRI International, and has recently moved to a posltlon as Professor
of Physics at Simon Fraser Umverslty, Bumaby, B C , Canada. He is the au-
thor of two books and coauthor of a third on surface phenomena, emphaslz-
mg semiconductor surfaces