Articles you may be interested inThermally induced nanoscale structural and morphological changes for atomic-layer-deposited Pt on SrTiO3 (001) Agglomeration process in thin silicon-, strained silicon-, and silicon germanium-on-insulator substrates Hydrogen-mediated quenching of strain-induced surface roughening during gas-source molecular beam epitaxy of fully-coherent Si 0.7 Ge 0.3 layers on Si (001) Thermal agglomeration of an ultrathin Si layer in silicon-on-insulator structures with a thickness ranging from 1 to 15 nm has been studied by atomic force microscopy. We found that the size of Si islands formed by agglomeration depends on the initial thickness of the Si layer, i.e., the height and the lateral size of Si islands increase with increasing Si thickness. Because the critical temperature for the agglomeration, however, is lower for thinner Si, the thickness dependence of Si island features is accompanied by a temperature effect. A calculation model based on both strain energy and surface free energy qualitatively explains most of the observed agglomeration phenomena, i.e., island formation and ordering.

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A two-dimensional Si multidot channel field-effect transistor is fabricated from a silicon-on-insulator material and the electrical characteristics are studied. The multidots are formed using a nanometer-scale local oxidation of Si process developed in our laboratory. The device shows ambipolar characteristics because of Schottky source and drain, i.e., the carriers are electrons for positive gate voltage and holes for the negative one. It is shown that Coulomb blockade (CB) oscillations are clearly observed for both of the electrons and holes at measurement temperatures up to 60 K. Both CB characteristics show nonperiodic oscillation and an open Coulomb diamond. These features are ascribed to the single electron/hole tunneling in the Si multidot channel.

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Single-hole transport in a two-dimensional Si multidot-channel field-effect transistor is studied. It is found that the single-hole-tunneling current fluctuates in the particular ranges of drain voltage and gate voltage. Such a phenomenon can be explained by a model that the hole transport through the percolation path is sensitively influenced and fluctuates with the time due to charging-discharging and polarity-switching of the dots adjacent to the percolation path. A Monte Carlo simulation using a parallel-double-dot circuit shows good agreement with the experimental characteristics.