Single-electron charging effect in individual Si nanocrystals

Baron, T.; Gentile, P.; Magnéa, N.; Mur, P.

doi:10.1063/1.1392302

Cited by 86 publications

(53 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…The value of the current is consistent with the first attempt of experimental current determination for single-nanocristal structures 20 . This is all the more remarkable because no high-level fit parameter (such as tunneling rates or tunneling conductance) is used.…”

Section: Semiconducting Coulomb Blockade Devicessupporting

confidence: 75%

From wave-functions to current-voltage characteristics: overview of a Coulomb blockade device simulator using fundamental physical parameters

et al. 2006

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Section: Semiconducting Coulomb Blockade Devicessupporting

confidence: 75%

From wave-functions to current-voltage characteristics: overview of a Coulomb blockade device simulator using fundamental physical parameters

et al. 2006

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“…Millo et al have used STM to characterize CdSe and InAs quantum dots on Au. 6,7 The STM measurements of Si nanocrystals fabricated through low pressure chemical vapor deposition 8 and nanocrystalline silicon films obtained by boron implantation of amorphous Si layers 9 have also been reported. In our case, samples have to be etched with buffered hydrofluoric acid to completely remove SiO 2 , leaving Si nanocrystals terminated with hydrogen and adhering directly on the Si substrate.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Probing the size and density of silicon nanocrystals in nanocrystal memory device applications

Feng

Dicken

et al. 2005

Applied Physics Letters

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Structural characterization via transmission electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy of arrays of small Si nanocrystals embedded in SiO 2 , important to many device applications, is usually difficult and fails to correctly resolve nanocrystal size and density. We demonstrate that scanning tunneling microscopy ͑STM͒ imaging enables a much more accurate measurement of the ensemble size distribution and array density for small Si nanocrystals in SiO 2 , estimated to be 2-3 nm and 4 ϫ 10 12 -3ϫ 10 13 cm −2 , respectively, in this study. The reflection high energy electron diffraction pattern further verifies the existence of nanocrystallites in SiO 2 . The present STM results enable nanocrystal charging characteristics to be more clearly understood: we find the nanocrystal charging measurements to be consistent with single charge storage on individual Si nanocrystals. Both electron tunneling and hole tunneling processes are suggested to explain the asymmetric charging/ discharging processes as a function of bias. © 2005 American Institute of Physics. ͓DOI: 10.1063/1.1852078͔Silicon nanocrystal memories 1 have attracted much attention in recent years. To fully exploit their potential advantages over conventional floating gate memory, it is essential to control as accurately as possible Si nanocrystal size, depth distribution, and areal density, as well as nanocrystal surface passivation and oxide defect density in SiO 2 matrix, all in a process compatible with ultra-large-scale integration. Transmission electron microscopy ͑TEM͒ is the most widely used tool to characterize nanocrystal size and distribution with high resolution, 2-4 and sometimes electron diffraction is used to further substantiate the existence of crystallites. We have used a combination of contact-mode atomic force microscopy ͑AFM͒ and reflection high energy electron diffraction ͑RHEED͒ to identify the existence of nanocrystals, and used an ultrahigh vacuum scanning tunneling microscope ͑UHV STM͒ to estimate nanocrystal size and areal density. Compared with TEM, using RHEED with very small incident angle enables high sensitivity to nanocrystal structure, and the resolution of STM is sufficiently high to detect nanometer size crystallites. The charging, discharging, and retention behaviors of the MOS capacitor nanocrystal memory structures were investigated by capacitance-voltage ͑C -V͒ measurements. The results obtained from both structural and electrical characterization are combined for complete analysis of nanocrystal floating gate memory devices made via Si ion implantation.The samples investigated consist of 15 nm dry oxide grown on p-type silicon substrate ͑N A =3ϫ 10 18 cm −3 ͒ implanted with 5 keV Si + ions to a fluence of 1.27 ϫ 10 16 cm −2 . The samples were annealed at 1080°C for 5 min in an atmosphere containing 2 % O 2 to allow formation of Si nanocrystals. Control samples without implantation were fabricated with the same structure and treated with the same condition as samples with nanocrystals. Cross-sectional high resolution...

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“…On the other hand, the determination of the electronic structure by electrical measurements, which is more relevant for studying the transport properties via semiconductor quantum dots [51], is much less conclusive in the case of Si NCs. In fact, following the success of the local electrical spectroscopy of single quantum dots that are given between two metal electrodes (in particular in II-VI and III-V semiconductor NCs [51,55]), trials were conducted to carry out scanning tunneling and conductive atomic force spectroscopies (STS [58] and C-AFM [59]) on Si NCs, indicating that the current is via the crystallites. On the other hand, with many difficulties associated with the interpretation of those results the best information that could have been deduced from them was that the confined level separations and the CB energy are of the order of 0.1-0.3 eV for NCs in the 3-5 nm size regime.…”

Section: Previous Studies Of Transport In Systems Of Simentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In view of the fact that the results obtained are very different in different works and the comparison with theories was done by ad hoc models, it seems at present that while these studies definitely indicate tunneling via the NCs, the results do not add up to an electronic level structure or even to a universal clear separation between the CB and QC effects as was obtained in corresponding studies of the isolated NCs of II-VI or III-V semiconductors [51,55,74], which were mentioned above. In particular, the various levels detected may or may not be associated with the quantum confinement in the NCs as other states can be present in the system [58,75]. On the other hand, the various measurements have definitely revealed the presence of charge stored and CB effects [4,67,71].…”

Section: Previous Studies Of Transport In Systems Of Simentioning

confidence: 99%

Electrical Transport Mechanisms in Ensembles of Silicon Nanocystallites

Balberg

2010

Silicon Nanocrystals

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While the optical [1][2][3] properties of various ensembles of individual Si nanocrystallites (NCs) and the memory-charge storage (CS) characteristics of two-dimensional (2D) arrays of Si NCs [4] have been investigated by many researchers, relatively little attention was paid to the transport properties of 3D ensembles of such quantum dots (QDs) [5]. The interest in the last systems, however, is expected to follow the new basic physics that it reveals and the potential applications of such systems. Following the reasonable (though still controversial [6]) understanding of granular metals [7,8], where the electrical conduction takes place via metallic particles, additional significant insights into the transport mechanism [5,9] and new phenomena are expected in Si NCs due to the presence of confined levels [10]. In particular, the combination of Coulomb blockade (CB) effects and the quantum confinement (QC) restrictions can yield various resonant tunneling effects [11] as well as various quantum phase transformations [12] that are beyond the scope of this chapter. From the application point of view, one realizes that significant electroluminescence (EL) can come about only as a result of efficient transport in 3D ensembles of Si NCs [4,13,14] that are dense enough to yield strong light emission. Finding the conditions for the optimization of the luminescence and the transport is then the route to achieve efficient Si-based photoelectronic devices [15].In this chapter, we present a review on the electrical transport in the ensembles of Si NCs. Since we are concerned with the transport in 3D ensembles of quantum dots, we will only briefly review the main results obtained from lower dimensional ensembles (i.e., 1D-like [16, 17] or perpendicular to 2D arrays [18][19][20][21]) of Si QDs in order to provide a reference for the effects of the small size of the single Si NCs on the transport in ensembles of larger dimensions. We will see that in spite of many studies of these 0D-like and 2D systems, which are essentially associated with single isolated NCs, and their potential use as nonvolatile memories, only the basics of the Silicon Nanocrystals: Fundamentals, Synthesis and Applications. Edited by Lorenzo Pavesi and Rasit Turan

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Single-electron charging effect in individual Si nanocrystals

Cited by 86 publications

References 15 publications

From wave-functions to current-voltage characteristics: overview of a Coulomb blockade device simulator using fundamental physical parameters

From wave-functions to current-voltage characteristics: overview of a Coulomb blockade device simulator using fundamental physical parameters

Probing the size and density of silicon nanocrystals in nanocrystal memory device applications

Electrical Transport Mechanisms in Ensembles of Silicon Nanocystallites

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