Enhanced magnetotransport at high bias in quasimagnetic tunnel junctions with EuS spin-filter barriers

In quasimagnetic tunnel junctions with a EuS spin-filter tunnel barrier between Al and Co electrodes, we observed large magnetoresistance (MR). The bias dependence shows an abrupt increase of MR ratio in high bias voltage, which is contrary to conventional magnetic tunnel junctions. This behavior can be understood as due to Fowler-Nordheim tunneling through the fully spin-polarized EuS conduction band. The I-V characteristics and bias dependence of MR calculated using tunneling theory show excellent agreement with experiment.     

Correlation between Si-SiO2 heterojunction and Fowler-Nordheim conduction mechanism after soft breakdown in ultrathin oxides

A stress-induced defect band model is proposed to investigate the Fowler-Nordheim tunneling characteristics of ultrathin gate oxides after soft breakdown. Soft breakdown occurs when the average distance between stress-induced defects locally reaches a critical value to overlap the bound electron wavefunction on adjacent defects and to form a defect band. This model shows that an n⁺-poly-Si/N-SiO₂/p-Si heterojunction structure is formed between electrodes at a local area after a soft breakdown in the ultrathin SiO₂ and the soft breakdown current can be described in terms of the Fowler-Nordheim tunneling process with a barrier height of ∼1 eV.     

Dynamic spin-polarized resonant tunneling in magnetic tunnel junctions

Precisely engineered tunnel junctions exhibit a long sought effect that occurs when the energy of the electron is comparable to the potential energy of the tunneling barrier. The resistance of metal-insulator-metal tunnel junctions oscillates with an applied voltage when electrons that tunnel directly into the barrier's conduction band interfere upon reflection at the classical turning points: the insulator-metal interface and the dynamic point where the incident electron energy equals the potential barrier inside the insulator. A model of tunneling between free electron bands using the exact solution of the Schr?dinger equation for a trapezoidal tunnel barrier qualitatively agrees with experiment.     

Metal and annealing atmospheres dependence of resistive switching in metal/Nb0.7wt%-SrTiO3 interfaces

We investigated the resistance switching (RS) effect of metal/Nb-doped SrTiO₃ interfaces under different treating conditions. Two types of I–V characteristics appeared due to the modification of Schottky-like barrier and the formation of insulating layer. According to X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis, the change in interface potential barrier was contributed to the migration of oxygen vacancies and electrons trapping/detrapping of carriers in the vicinity of interface. Nonlinear fitting is applied to the curves to study the conduction mechanism of metal/NSTO. For “barrier height” style, Schottky emission and Poole–Frenkel (P–F) emission are dominating; for “insulating layer” style, space-charge-limited current, controls the conduction.     

Tunnelling and hot electron effects in single barrier (AlGa)AsGaAs heterostructure devices

Experimental investigations of the effect of hydrostatic pressure (up to 15 kilobar) and magnetic field (up to 11 T) on the low temperature J(V) characteristics of single barrier n⁺GaAs/(AlGa)As/n⁻GaAs/n⁺GaAs tunnelling structures are reported. The pressure dependence is accurately described by the effective mass/WKB model up to 10 kilobar. At higher pressure the observed breakdown of the model indicates the onset of band structure effects associated with the higher conduction band minima. The reduction of the tunnelling current in an applied magnetic field is discussed in terms of the effect of the diamagnetic energy in increasing the effective height of the barrier. The paper reviews recent models that have been proposed to explain the origin of the oscillatory structure of period ΔV = ↔hω_L/e observed in the low temperature reverse bias J(V) characteristics.     

Indication of the presence of acceptor states around the Fermi level of amorphous silicon

A junction was grown by sputtering of silicon on a single crystal of high resistivity n-type silicon. The reverese bias V-I characteristics followed Fowler-Nerdheim model with a sudden change in the slope at 0.4 volt indicating an increase in the barrier height. This is attributed to tunneling of extra electrons from the bottom of the conduction band of the substrate to the acceptor traps that face each ether at this bias.     

Theory of zero bias anomalies due to paramagnetic impurities

The method developed by one of the authors is generalized to include paramagnetic impurities in order to explain zero bias tunneling anomalies. The self-energy of the electrons is supposed to be a local function in space; nonlocal or assisted tunneling effects are beyond the scope of the present theory. The tunneling current is expressed in terms of the local density of states at the barrier which in turn is given in terms of the life-time of the conduction electrons. The change of the local density of states depends on the positions of the impurities relative to the metal-oxide interface. This dependence is thoroughly investigated.     

Tunneling control by external actions: Dynamic localization

Tunnel dynamics described by the one-dimensional nonstationary Schrödinger equation with a potential periodically depending on time was studied numerically and analytically. Quasi-energy levels were found in the second order with respect to perturbation parameter powers. The dependence of the rate of tunneling on potential parameters was found numerically, and the results were analyzed using the two-level model. The condition of tunneling “quenching” for an arbitrary initial state was obtained.     

Wannier–Stark resonances in Zener tunneling diodes with GaAs/AlAs superlattices

We present DC transport measurements of the valence to conduction band (Zener) tunneling current in ap–i–ndiode with an ultrathin intrinsic layer containing a (GaAs)₅/(AlAs)₂multi-quantum well structure. According to recent theoretical predictions, the DC current should show maxima as a function of the reverse bias voltage that reflect the formation of Wannier–Stark resonances. So far, Wannier–Stark resonances have only been observed optically and never in a regime of strong Zener tunneling. Experimentally, we find the second derivative of the current-voltage characteristics to show a weak oscillatory structure indeed, indicating the existence of Wannier–Stark resonances in Zener tunneling.     

Electrical conduction in thin thermally nitrided SiO2 (nitroxide)

Nitridation-enhanced conduction in thin nitroxide films has been examined in detail. Significant increase of high field current is attributed both to the enhanced Fowler-Nordheim (FN) tunneling injection and the Poole-Frenkel (PF) emission; the latter is confirmed by the linear dependence of log(I_PF) on E and the existence of a self-consistent dynamic dielectric constant. It is found that the enhancement of electron FN tunneling arises mainly from the piling up of nitrogen at the surface, but the PF component originates from the traps which are related to the nitrogen concentration in the bulk of nitroxide.     

Quasi-distribution of tunneling time

Using real time Feynman histories, a quasi-distribution of tunneling time Q(τ) is introduced. For the tunneling time of resident time type, an explicit expression for Q is shown for square barriers. Q becomes oscillatory as the barrier becomes opaque. Some well-known tunneling times fall within the range of τ where Q takes non-negligible values. The formal “average” and the “variance” of the tunneling time are found to be related to known tunneling times. It is thus demonstrated that the quasi-distribution extracts the temporal information about tunneling from real time Feynman histories.     

N/I/d波超导体c轴隧道结的微分电导

以方势垒描述绝缘层,对N/I/d波超导体c轴隧道结的微分电导进行了研究.结果表明:在N/I/d波超导体c轴隧道结的隧道谱中存在V型结构、能隙外的凹陷和小的零偏压电导峰.这一结果能很好的解释相关的实验现象.     

Structures of energy spectrum and persistent currents in mesoscopic rings with radial potential barrier in magnetic field

The energy spectrum and the persistent currents are calculated for finite-width mesoscopic annular structures with radial potential barrier in the presence of a magnetic field. The introduction of the tunneling barrier leads to the creation of extra edge states around the barrier and the occurrence of oscillatory structures superimposed on the bulk Landau level plateaus in the energy spectrum. We found that the Fermi energy E _F increases with the number of electrons N emerging many kinks. The single eigenstate persistent current exhibits complicated structures with vortex-like texture, “bifurcation”, and multiple “furcation” patterns as N is increased. The total currents versus N display wild fluctuations.     

Barrier degradation of tunneling magnetoresistance device with MgO barrier and low resistance-area product

MgO barrier degradation is studied in a tunneling magnetoresistance head with low resistance-area product. As the stress current is increased, the resistance is significantly reduced before the barrier breakdown, while the magnetoresistance ratio remains almost unvaried. At the same time, the bias dependence of the resistance becomes less affected by the bias polarity, suggesting that slight degradation occurs at the interface between MgO and the ferromagnetic electrode. Just before the breakdown, the bias dependence shows an increasing tendency, indicating the defect accumulation inside the MgO barrier. The results are helpful for understanding the mechanisms of barrier degradation, which is critical for developing future magnetic tunneling junction devices.     

The electrical characteristics of a 4H-silicon carbide metal-insulator-semiconductor structure with Al2O3 as the gate dielectric

A 4H-silicon carbide metal-insulator-semiconductor structure with ultra-thin Al₂O₃ as the gate dielectric, deposited by atomic layer deposition on the epitaxial layer of a 4H-SiC (0001) 8⁰N-/N+ substrate, has been fabricated. The experimental results indicate that the prepared ultra-thin Al₂O₃ gate dielectric exhibits good physical and electrical characteristics, including a high breakdown electrical field of 25 MV/cm, excellent interface properties (1×10¹⁴ cm^-2) and low gate-leakage current (I_G = 1 × 10^-3 A/cm^-2@E_ox = 8 MV/cm). Analysis of the current conduction mechanism on the deposited Al₂O₃ gate dielectric was also systematically performed. The confirmed conduction mechanisms consisted of Fowler-Nordheim (FN) tunneling, the Frenkel-Poole mechanism, direct tunneling and Schottky emission, and the dominant current conduction mechanism depends on the applied electrical field. When the gate leakage current mechanism is dominated by FN tunneling, the barrier height of SiC/Al₂O₃ is 1.4 eV, which can meet the requirements of silicon carbide metal-insulator-semiconductor transistor devices.     

晶格匹配InAlN/GaN异质结肖特基接触反向电流的电压与温度依赖关系

测量了晶格匹配InAlN/GaN异质结肖特基接触的反向变温电流-电压特性曲线,研究了反向漏电流的偏压与温度依赖关系.结果表明:1)电流是电压和温度的强函数,饱和电流远大于理论值,无法采用经典热发射模型解释;2)在低偏压区,数据满足ln(I/E)-E^1/2线性依赖关系,电流斜率和激活能与Frenkel-Poole模型的理论值接近,表明电流应该为FP机制占主导;3)在高偏压区,数据满足ln(I/E)-E^1/2线性依赖关系,电流斜率不随温度改变,表明Fowler-Nordheim隧穿机制占主导;4)反向电流势垒高度约为0.60 eV,远低于热发射势垒高度2.91 eV,表明可导位错应是反向漏电流的主要输运通道,局域势垒由于潜能级施主态电离而被极大降低.     

Spin-polarized current produced by a double barrier resonant tunneling diode

The spin-polarized tunneling current through a double barrier resonant tunneling diode (RTD) made with a semimagnetic semiconductor is studied theoretically. The calculated spin-polarized current and polarization degree are in agreement with recent experimental results. It is predicted that the polarization degree can be modulated continuously from +1 to −1 by changing the external voltage such that the quasi-confined spin-up and spin-down energy levels shift downwards from the Fermi level to the bottom of the conduction band. The RTD with low potential barrier or the tunneling through the second quasi-confined state produces larger spin-polarized current. Furthermore a higher magnetic field enhances the polarization degree of the tunneling current.     

Imaging and spectroscopy of artificial-atom states in core/shell nanocrystal quantum dots.

Current imaging scanning tunneling microscopy is used to observe the electronic wave functions in InAs/ZnSe core/shell nanocrystals. Images taken at a bias corresponding to the s conduction band state show that it is localized in the central core region, while images at higher bias probing the p state reveal that it extends to the shell. This is supported by optical and tunneling spectroscopy data demonstrating that the s-p gap closes upon shell growth. Shapes of the current images resemble atomlike envelope wave functions of the quantum dot calculated within a particle in a box model.     

Tunneling conductance of graphene NIS junctions

We show that, in contrast with conventional normal metal-insulator-superconductor (NIS) junctions, the tunneling conductance of a NIS junction in graphene is an oscillatory function of the effective barrier strength of the insulating region, in the limit of a thin barrier. The amplitude of these oscillations is maximum for aligned Fermi surfaces of the normal and superconducting regions and vanishes for a large Fermi surface mismatch. The zero-bias tunneling conductance, in sharp contrast to its counterpart in conventional NIS junctions, becomes maximum for a finite barrier strength. We also suggest experiments to test these predictions.     

Valence band electron tunneling in metal-oxide-silicon structures

Experimental results are presented for the substrate current appearing in thin oxide metal-oxide-silicon capacitors with a shallow n/p junction beneath the gate when a positive gate voltage in the tunneling regime is applied. The analysis of the current-voltage characteristics shows that for an oxide voltage drop lower than about 5 V the substrate current is due to electron tunneling from the silicon valence band. The dispersion relation in the energy range extending 3 eV below the oxide conduction band is determined from the voltage dependence of the current in the direct tunneling regime. An effective mass of about 0.8m_e is found near the edge of the oxide conduction band, while for lower energies a strong decrease of the effective mass is observed.