Characterizing hot-carrier transport in silicon heterostructures with the use of ballistic-electron-emission microscopy

Bell, L. D.; Manion, S. J.; Hecht, M. H.; Kaiser, William J.; Fathauer, R. W.; Milliken, A. M.

doi:10.1103/physrevb.48.5712

Cited by 31 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…13,14 The existence of multiple threshold voltages on the MnSi/ Si͑001͒ sample was unexpected. The presence of more than one threshold voltage has been observed using BEEM on various metal-SiC and metal-GaAs contacts.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Hot electron transport across manganese silicide layers on the Si(001) surface

Stollenwerk

Krause

Moore

et al. 2006

Journal of Vacuum Science &Amp; Technology A: Vacuum, Surfaces, and Films

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Hot electron transport across manganese silicide layers on the Si(001) surface

Stollenwerk

Krause

Moore

et al. 2006

Journal of Vacuum Science &Amp; Technology A: Vacuum, Surfaces, and Films

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“…Ballistic electron emission microscopy (BEEM), a three-terminal modification of scanning tunneling microscopy, has recently been shown to be a powerful tool for nanometer-scale characterization of the spatial and electronic properties of semiconductor structures. Since the pioneering work of Kaiser and Bell [1], the capability of BEEM to probe the electronic properties of semiconductors on the local scale has been demonstrated for several systems, including Schottky contacts [2][3][4] and buried heterojunctions [5][6][7].…”

Section: (Received 29 October 1998)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of Electron Scattering on Second Derivative Ballistic Electron Emission Spectroscopy inAu/GaAs/AlGaAsHeterostructures

et al. 1999

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We present a quantitative study of the second voltage derivative (SD) of ballistic electron emission spectra of Au͞GaAs͞AlGaAs heterostructures to probe the effect of electron scattering on these spectra. Our analysis of the SD spectra shows that strong electron scattering occurs at the nonepitaxial Au͞GaAs interface, leading to an experimentally observed redistribution of current among the electron transport channels. We also show that the effects of hot-electron scattering inside the semiconductor modify the spectra and are sensitive to the heterojunction band structure, its geometry, and temperature. [S0031-9007(99)09041-9] PACS numbers: 72.10.Fk, 73.20.At, 73.40.Kp, 73.50.Gr Ballistic electron emission microscopy (BEEM), a three-terminal modification of scanning tunneling microscopy, has recently been shown to be a powerful tool for nanometer-scale characterization of the spatial and electronic properties of semiconductor structures. Since the pioneering work of Kaiser and Bell [1], the capability of BEEM to probe the electronic properties of semiconductors on the local scale has been demonstrated for several systems, including Schottky contacts [2-4] and buried heterojunctions [5][6][7].The shape of the BEEM spectrum in the threshold region has to be known in order to derive the correct Schottky or heterojunction barrier energies. Several theoretical models were developed to describe the experimental BEEM spectra. Two commonly used models, based on a planar tunneling formalism [8] and on the transverse momentum conservation at the metal-semiconductor (m-s) interface, are the Bell-Kaiser (BK) model [9] and the Ludeke-Prietsch (LP) model [10]. The LP model extends the original BK theory to include the energydependent electron mean free path (mfp) in the metal base layer and the quantum mechanical transmission at the m-s interface. Experimentally distinguishing between the BK and LP models is still difficult, because the quantitative difference between them is comparable with the experimental error, and both of them can fit experimental data reasonably well [6,11,12]. Recently, BEEM theory was extended to the case of buried heterostructures [13], where transmission at the heterojunction interfaces in addition to the m-s interface was considered.The assumption of transverse momentum conservation, made in the above models, is questionable for the case of nonepitaxial m-s interfaces, which are not atomically abrupt. A deviation from the ballistic picture was experimentally observed, e.g., for Au͞Si [14], Pd͞Si [15], and Au͞GaAs [1,6]. To consider electron scattering at the m-s interface, the m-s interface-induced scattering (MSIS) model was proposed in Ref. [16]. In the strong scattering limit, this model was found to describe the absolute magnitude of the experimentally observed BEEM current for Au͞GaAs and Au͞Si systems. However, since the observed BEEM spectra are a superposition of current contributions from several different transport channels, it is difficult to conclusively extract the different conducti...

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“…Although the injection is due to ballistic transport in the metallic contact, the mfp in the Si is only of the order of 10 nm [82], so the vast majority of the subsequent transport to the detector over a length scale of tens [54,77,79], hundreds [65,80] or thousands [83] of micrometres occurs at the conduction band edge following momentum relaxation. Typically, relatively large accelerating voltages are used so that the dominant transport mode is carrier drift; the presence of rectifying Schottky barriers on either side of the transport region assures that the resulting electric field does nothing other than determine the drift velocity of spin-polarized electrons and hence the transit time [84,85]-there are no spurious (unpolarized) currents induced to flow.…”

Section: Ballistic Hot Electron Injection and Detection Devicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Introduction to spin-polarized ballistic hot electron injection and detection in silicon

Appelbaum

2011

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A.

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Ballistic hot electron transport overcomes the well-known problems of conductivity and spin lifetime mismatch that plague spin injection attempts in semiconductors using ferromagnetic ohmic contacts. Through the spin dependence of the mean free path in ferromagnetic thin films, it also provides a means for spin detection after transport. Experimental results using these techniques (consisting of spin precession and spin-valve measurements) with silicon-based devices reveals the exceptionally long spin lifetime and high spin coherence induced by drift-dominated transport in the semiconductor. An appropriate quantitative model that accurately simulates the device characteristics for both undoped and doped spin transport channels is described; it can be used to recover the transit-time distribution from precession measurements and determine the spin current velocity, diffusion constant and spin lifetime, constituting a spin 'HaynesShockley' experiment without time-of-flight techniques. A perspective on the future of these methods is offered as a summary.

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Characterizing hot-carrier transport in silicon heterostructures with the use of ballistic-electron-emission microscopy

Cited by 31 publications

References 11 publications

Hot electron transport across manganese silicide layers on the Si(001) surface

Hot electron transport across manganese silicide layers on the Si(001) surface

Effect of Electron Scattering on Second Derivative Ballistic Electron Emission Spectroscopy inAu/GaAs/AlGaAsHeterostructures

Introduction to spin-polarized ballistic hot electron injection and detection in silicon

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