Intrinsic ultrasmall nanoscale silicon turns n-/p-type with SiO₂/Si₃N₄-coating

Abstract

Impurity doping of ultrasmall nanoscale (usn) silicon (Si) currently used in ultralarge scale integration (ULSI) faces serious miniaturization challenges below the 14 nm technology node such as dopant out-diffusion and inactivation by clustering in Si-based field-effect transistors (FETs). Moreover, self-purification and massively increased ionization energy cause doping to fail for Si nano-crystals (NCs) showing quantum confinement. To introduce electron- (n-) or hole- (p-) type conductivity, usn-Si may not r…