Conduction and trapping of electrons in highly stressed ultrathin films of thermal SiO2

Harari, E.

doi:10.1063/1.89252

Cited by 124 publications

(65 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Although other growth techniques are available, 18,[26][27][28] their quality still requires improvement. The BN was transferred to a silicon wafer coated with a 50-nm layer of platinum using the mechanical exfoliation technique.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Layer-by-Layer Dielectric Breakdown of Hexagonal Boron Nitride

Hattori

Taniguchi²,

Watanabe³

et al. 2014

ACS Nano

200

218

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Hexagonal boron nitride (BN) is widely used as a substrate and gate insulator for two-dimensional (2D) electronic devices. The studies on insulating properties and electrical reliability of BN itself, however, are quite limited. Here, we report a systematic investigation of the dielectric breakdown characteristics of BN using conductive atomic force microscopy. The electric field strength was found to be ~12 MV/cm, which is comparable to that of conventional SiO2 oxides because of the covalent bonding nature of BN. After the hard dielectric breakdown, the BN fractured like a flower into equilateral triangle fragments. However, when the applied voltage was terminated precisely in the middle of the dielectric breakdown, the formation of a hole that did not penetrate to the bottom metal electrode was clearly observed. Subsequent I-V measurements of the hole indicated that the BN layer remaining in the hole was still electrically inactive. Based on these observations, layer-by-layer breakdown was confirmed for BN with regard to both physical fracture and electrical breakdown. Moreover, statistical analysis of the breakdown voltages using a Weibull plot suggested the anisotropic formation of defects. These results are unique to layered materials and unlike the behavior observed for conventional 3D amorphous oxides.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Layer-by-Layer Dielectric Breakdown of Hexagonal Boron Nitride

Hattori

Taniguchi²,

Watanabe³

et al. 2014

ACS Nano

200

218

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“…The physics of gate-oxide wearout and breakdown has been a subject of intense study for decades. The current status of theoretical understanding is that thin oxide of 100 and below follows a wearout model [1], [4]- [8] rather than the feedback runaway model [9]- [12] that dominates thicker oxides.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Stress-induced leakage current (SILC) and oxide breakdown: are they from the same oxide traps?

Pantisano

Cheung

2001

IEEE Trans. Device Mater. Relib.

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Many research groups have used stress-induced leakage current (SILC) as a mean to measure the oxide traps (defects) buildup in the oxide film during electrical stress. It is commonly believed that these very same traps will lead to oxide breakdown when their density reaches a critical value. We studied the annealing kinetic of SILC as well as the oxide breakdown distribution and found that they are quite different. Our result casts serious doubt on the validity of the popular assumption.

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“…24,25 The carriers that are accelerated by the electrical field gain energy that is greater in value than that of the band gap, which excites electron-hole pairs and often breaks the bonding. In general, for thicker insulators, the trapped positive charges in the insulator, mainly due to defects, enhance the electrical field near the cathode.…”

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confidence: 99%

Comparison of device structures for the dielectric breakdown measurement of hexagonal boron nitride

Hattori

Taniguchi

Watanabe

et al. 2016

Applied Physics Letters

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Improving the film quality in the synthesis of large-area hexagonal boron nitride films (h-BN) for two-dimensional material devices remains a great challenge. The measurement of electrical breakdown dielectric strength (EBD) is one of the most important methods to elucidate the insulating quality of h-BN. In this work, the EBD of high quality exfoliated singlecrystal h-BN was investigated using three different electrode structures under different environmental conditions to determine the ideal electrode structure and environment for EBD measurement. A systematic investigation revealed that EBD is not sensitive to contact force or electrode area but strongly depends on the relative humidity during measurement. Once the measurement environment is properly managed, it was found that the EBD values are consistent within experimental error regardless of the electrode structure, which enables the evaluation of the crystallinity of synthesized h-BN at the microscopic and macroscopic level by utilizing the three different electrode structures properly for different purposes.Following the many advances in the science and application of graphene and other two-dimensional (2D) materials, van der Waals (vdW) heterostructure devices formed by stacking atomically thin layered 2D crystals have attracted significant interest because of their fascinating electrical, optical and mechanical properties. The atoms connect to each other in a unit layer with strong covalent bonds, while each layer is stabilized by weak vdW forces, which enables a wide variety of stacking without the limitation of lattice mismatch at the interface.1 Hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) with its wide band gap (5.2 -5.9 eV 2 ) has been commonly used as an ideal insulating material in vdW heterostructure devices. Because insulating properties are important in electrical device applications, especially for gate insulators in field-effect transistors, fundamental research on the electrical breakdown strength (EBD) in the out-of-plane direction has been conducted using small flakes that were mechanically exfoliated from high quality single crystals, and the EBD has been reported as ~10 -12 MV/cm. [3][4][5][6] Recently, the in-plane EBD has also been determined to be ~3 MV/cm, 4 suggesting strong anisotropy in EBD.For practical applications, the large-area synthesis of h-BN has been intensively studied using various methods.7-14 However, the out-of-plane EBD values for scalable h-BN are largely scattered and limited to ~4 MV/cm, which is lower than that of the exfoliated sample.7-10 It is evident that there are common problems with impurities, and the presence of wrinkles and grain boundaries and the non-uniform thickness, which largely originate from the high nucleation density. 15 However, the out-of-plane EBD has been measured under different environmental conditions and by various electrode structures, such as the crossed electrode structure, 6-10 conductive atomic-force microscopy (C-AFM) 3, 5, 11 and probing systems. 12 To fairly compare the film quality, com...

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Conduction and trapping of electrons in highly stressed ultrathin films of thermal SiO2

Cited by 124 publications

References 5 publications

Layer-by-Layer Dielectric Breakdown of Hexagonal Boron Nitride

Layer-by-Layer Dielectric Breakdown of Hexagonal Boron Nitride

Stress-induced leakage current (SILC) and oxide breakdown: are they from the same oxide traps?

Comparison of device structures for the dielectric breakdown measurement of hexagonal boron nitride

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