Modulation capacitance voltage spectroscopy is applied to study the interaction between interface defect states and the conduction band of thermally oxidized n-type silicon wafers, which were prepared using a broad spectrum of preparation conditions. The modulation frequency response of metal oxide semiconductor samples is measured in depletion and accumulation as a function of temperature and of the position of the Fermi level at the interface. The data reveal two different sets of states, the capture cross sections of which differ by as much as 1–2 orders of magnitude. We assign these states to two types of defects which originate from silicon dangling bonds with three backbonded silicon atoms (Pb center) and silicon dangling bonds where one backbond is substituted by oxygen (PL center). Both capture cross sections decrease monotonically with decreasing energetic separation from the conduction band.
CV‐measurements provide term spectra for the SiSiO2 interface up to the band edges. The comparison of a huge amount of data with variations in specimen data and technology allows to describe the general shape of the N(E) distribution. The analysis of the N(E) curve in the neighbourhood of the band edges allows to discriminate different groups of states which make up the continuous N(E) distribution. The results may be understood with dangling bonds and bond distortions as the two groups of “intrinsic” states which are built up by pairs of binding—nonbinding states. A further group of “extrinsic” states with Gaussian distributions exists occasionally and is perhaps connected with impurities. This composition of interface states from groups of the given character allows to understand general properties and technological behaviour of the semiconductor‐insulator interface.
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