Carrier conduction in a Si-nanocrystal-based single-electron transistor-II. Effect of drain bias

Abstract

We have successfully fabricated a single-electron transistor based on undoped Si nanocrystals having radii of approximately 3-5 nm. The energy band structure of the Si dot consists of a set of discrete sublevels and a quasi-continuous band. By self-consistently solving the 3D Schrödinger and Poisson equations we have shown that the undoped Si dots between the source and drain are not occupied at zero gate bias. The carrier transport properties observed experimentally at zero gate bias have been well attributed to carrier tunneling through a multiple-step potential barrier between the source and drain junctions. Each step in the potential barrier corresponds to the bottom of the quasi-continuous band in one Si nanocrystal.

Electrical transport mechanisms in ensembles of silicon quantum dots

“…This conclusion is further supported by considering the many works that are consistent with that picture and the fact that only very few works suggested the observation of resonant tunneling in Si QDs [30,31]. In that context an extremely important observation in the present work is that our I-t relaxation characteristics and our I-V hysteresis results on the present 3D QDs systems are very similar to results observed by others for 1D [32] and 2D [20,21] arrays of QDs. This similarity gives then quite a convincing proof for our conjecture that the results we obtained in the close vicinity of x c can be interpreted indeed in terms of a single QD, or a few DBTJs in series.…”

Characterization of Electroluminescence from One-Dimensionally Self-Aligned Si-Based Quantum Dots

“…Nanometer-scale silicon structures show unique physical properties that originate from carrier confinement and Coulomb blockade effects, and their application to single electron transistors, floating gate memories, and light emitting diodes (LED) has been studied intensively. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] In particular, light emission from Si nanostructures has stimulated considerable interest and research activity to develop Si-based LEDs. Despite many efforts, improving efficiency in electroluminescence (EL) and its stability are still major challenges.…”

Atomic Force Microscope Current-Imaging Study for Current Density through Nanocrystalline Silicon Dots Embedded in SiO2

“…Nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si) has attracted considerable interest in recent years due to its potential applications in advanced devices such as memory elements, 1,2) electron emitter devices 3) and single-electron transistors. 4) It also provides a unique system for investigating the physics of quantum confinement effects and the associated electron transport due to its small dimensions and controlled geometry of the dots.…”