HOT-CARRIER GENERATION MECHANISM AND HOT-CARRIER EFFECT IMMUNITY IN DEEP-SUB-MICRON GROOVED-GATE PMOSFETS

Based on the hydrodynamic energy transport model, immunity from the hot-carrier effect in deep-sub-micron grooved-gate p-channel metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (PMOSFETs) is analysed. The results show that hot carriers generated in grooved-gate PMOSFETs are much smaller than those in planar ones, especially for the case of channel lengths lying in the deep-sub-micron and super deep-sub-micron regions. Then, the hot-carrier generation mechanism and the reason why grooved-gate MOS devices can suppress the hot-carrier effect are studied from the viewpoint of physical mechanisms occurring in devices. It is found that the highest hot-carrier generating rate is at a medium gate bias voltage in three stress areas, similar to conventional planar devices. In deep-sub-micron grooved-gate PMOSFETs, the hot-carrier injection gate current is still composed mainly of the hot-electron injection current, and the hole injection current becomes dominant only at an extremely high gate voltage. In order to investigate other influences of the hot-carrier effect on the device characteristics, the degradation of the device performance is studied for both grooved-gate and planar devices at different interface states. The results show that the drift of the device electrical performance induced by the interface states in grooved-gate PMOSFETs is far larger than that in planar devices.     

关于p-n合金结中少数载流者的注射理论

本文用一维模型计算了p-n合金结中少数载流者的一般注射理论。这里假设复合率是与注入载流者的密度成正比。首先,我们讨论了大注射和小注射的两种极端情况,这样得到的结果被用作零级近似解来计算p-n结中注入少数载流者的分布情况。用逐步近似的方法我们得到了注射效率和注射强度(即注入少数载流者的密度与原有多数载流者的密度之比)间的解析关系。在同样的基础上也得到了通过结的总电流密度和注射强度间的类似关系。这理论的结果表明;对一个平常的合金结晶体三极管来说,当发射极电流增加时,发射极的注射效率逐渐下降。在很大的注射强度下,注射效率趋近于极限值1/(1+b),其中b是电子迁移率与空穴迁移率之比。对一个具有很低注射效率的p-n合金结来说,在注射电流小的时候,注射效率是正比于通过结的总电流;当往射电流很大时,注射效率趋近于极限值1/(1+b)。理论结果还表明,在小注射情下,通过p-n合金结的总电流是正比于注射强度;而在大注射情况下,它是正比于注射强度的平方。     

First-principles study on the electronic transport properties of M/SiC Schottky junctions (M=Ag,Au and Pd)

In this work, we investigate the electronic transport properties of M/SiC Schottky junctions (M=Ag, Au and Pd). The results show that the band structures of hydrogenated zigzag SiC nanoribbons (ZSiCNRs) and hydrogenated armchair SiC nanoribbons (ASiCNRs) are almost unaffected by their width changes. When the hydrogenated 7-ASiCNR is directly connected to the Ag, Au and Pd electrode, the transmission spectra of three metal-semiconductor junctions show that the Fermi level of metal is pinned to a fixed position in the semiconductor band gap of hydrogenated 7-ASiCNR. The nearly same rectifying current-voltage characteristics are found in three metal-semiconductor junctions. The average rectification ratios of three M/SiC Schottky junctions are all in the neighborhood of 10⁶. In other word, the M/SiC Schottky junction has remarkable application prospect as the candidate for Schottky Diode.     

Graphene-Based Normal/Ferromagnetic/Normal Junction as a Polarizer

Scattering matrix formalism is employed to calculate the conductance in a graphene-based N/F/N/F/N junction in the ballistic regime. The manipulation of spin transport for any number of N/F junctions is investigated by both the electrode gate and magnetic barriers. Kronig-Penney model is applied to consider the effects of barriers on spin transport in graphene. By considering a sequence of N/F junctions we have proposed that N/F/N junction could act like a polarizer. In this way, unpolarized charge carriers while traversing through the consecutive N/F/N junctions turn into polarized charge carriers.     

Au/TiN复合薄膜制备及其表面增强拉曼光谱研究

表面增强拉曼散射光谱(SERS)已用于环境监测、生物医药、食品卫生等领域,而高活性SERS基底是表面增强拉曼散射光谱技术应用的关键。TiN作为新型等离子材料具有较强的SERS性能,同时化学稳定性及生物相容性较好,但其SERS性能不如贵金属金强。该研究采用氨气还原氮化法和电化学沉积法,在TiN薄膜表面沉积贵金属Au纳米颗粒制备出Au/TiN复合薄膜。在Au/TiN复合薄膜中单质Au和TiN两种物相共存;随着电化学沉积时间延长,TiN薄膜表面单质金纳米颗粒数量逐渐增多,金纳米颗粒尺寸增大,颗粒间距减小。由于金与TiN两者的本征表面等离子共振耦合作用,Au/TiN复合薄膜的共振吸收峰发生了偏移。利用罗丹明6G为拉曼探针分子,对Au/TiN复合薄膜进行SERS性能分析,发现Au/TiN复合薄膜上的R6G探针分子的拉曼峰信号强度随沉积时间延长呈现先增大后减小的规律;当电化学沉积时间为5 min时,R6G拉曼信号峰较高,复合薄膜样品的SERS活性最大。将Au/TiN复合薄膜和Au薄膜分别浸泡在10-3,10-5,10-7,10-8及10-9 mol·L-1 R6G溶液5 min,进行检测限分析,发现Au/TiN复合薄膜检测极限达10-8 mol·L-1,增强因子达到8.82×105,与Au薄膜和TiN薄膜相比,Au/TiN复合薄膜上对R6G探针分子SERS活性最高。这得益于Au/TiN复合膜中表面等离子体产生的耦合效应,使得局域电磁场强度增强,从而引起R6G探针分子拉曼信号增强。通过2D-FDTD模拟电场分布发现Au/TiN,Au及TiN薄膜具有电场增强作用,其中Au/TiN复合薄膜的增强作用尤为显著,这也证实了氮化钛与金纳米颗粒之间存在耦合效应。另外发现TiN与Au之间可能存在电荷转移,促进了4-氨基苯硫酚氧化反应,进而证实了TiN与Au薄膜的协同作用。此外,Au/TiN复合薄膜均匀性较好,相对平均偏差仅为7.58%。由此可见,采用电化学沉积制备的Au/TiN复合薄膜具有作为SERS基底材料的应用潜力。     

Characteristics of the bipolar resistive switching behavior in memory device with Au/ZnO/ITO structure

In this work, reproducible and stable bipolar resistive switching behavior without the requirement of forming process is observed in the memory device with Au/ZnO/ITO structure. It shows a high R_on/R_off ratio, where R_on and R_off are the resistance at low resistance state (LRS) and high resistance state (HRS), respectively. The dominated transport mechanisms for LRS and HRS are related to space charge limited current and Ohmic behavior, respectively. This bipolar resistive behavior is attributed to the formation and rupture of conducting filaments which are constructed with oxygen vacancies. The Au/ZnO/ITO device discussed in this work shows huge potential applications in the next generation nonvolatile memory field.     

Mechanism of Ti/Al/Ni/Au ohmic contacts to AlGaN/GaN heterostructures via laser annealing

The physical mechanisms of Ti/Al/Ni/Au ohmic contacts to AlGaN/GaN heterostructures by laser annealing and rapid thermal annealing are systematically investigated. The microstructures indicate that a better surface morphology and an intact contact interface are formed after laser annealing. None of the TiN alloy spikes are formed at the interface of the laser annealing sample. The experimental results show that the current transport mechanism through the ohmic contact after laser annealing is different from the conventional spike mechanism, and it is dominated by thermionic field emission.     

Enhancement in SERS intensity with hierarchical nanostructures by bimetallic deposition approach

We investigate the plasmonic enhancement arising from bimetallic (Au/Ag) hierarchical structure and address the fundamental issues relating to the design of multilayered nanostructures for surface‐enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy. SERS‐active nanosphere arrays with Ag underlayer and Au overlayer were systematically constructed, with the thickness of each layer altered from 40 to 320 nm. The SERS responses of the resultant bimetallic structures were measured with 2‐naphthalenethiol dye as the test sample. The results confirm the dependency of SERS enhancement on the thickness ratio (Au : Ag). Compared with Au‐arrays, our optimized bimetallic structures, which exhibit nanoprotrusions on the nanospheres, were found to be 2.5 times more SERS enhancing, approaching the enhancement factor of an Ag‐array. The elevated SERS is attributed to the formation of effective hot‐spots associated with increased roughness of the outer Au film, resulting from subsequent sputtering of Au granules on a roughened Ag surface. The morphology and reflectance studies suggest that the SERS hot‐spots are distributed at the junctions of interconnected nanospheres and over the nanosphere surface, depending on the thickness ratio between the Au and Ag layers. We show that, by varying the thickness ratio, it is possible to optimize the SERS enhancement factor without significantly altering the operating plasmon resonance wavelength, which is dictated solely by the size of the underlying nanospheres template. In addition, our bimetallic substrates show long‐term stability compared with previously reported Ag‐arrays, whose SERS efficiency drops by 60% within a week because of oxidation. These findings demonstrate the potential of using such a bimetallic configuration to morphologically optimize any SERS substrate for sensing applications that demand huge SERS enhancement and adequate chemical stability. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effect of end groups on contact resistance of alkanethiol based metal-molecule-metal junctions using current sensing AFM

Tuning the charge transport through a metal-molecule-metal junction by changing the interface properties is widely studied and is of paramount importance for applications in molecular electronic devices. We used current sensing atomic force microscopy (CSAFM) as a tool to study the contact resistance of metal-molecule-metal (MmM) junctions formed by sandwiching self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of alkanethiols with various end groups (-CH₃, -OH and -NH₂) between Au(1 1 1) substrates and Au coated AFM tips. The effect of interface chemistry on charge transport through such SAMs with varying end groups was studied in an inert, non-polar liquid (hexadecane) environment. We find that the contact resistances of these MmM junctions vary significantly based on the end group chemistry of the molecules.     

Fabrication of electrically contacted plasmonic Schottky nanoantennas on silicon

We fabricate Schottky contact photodetectors based on electrically contacted Au nanoantennas on p-Si for the plasmonic detection of sub-bandgap photons in the optical communications wavelength range. Based on a physical model for the internal photoemission of hot carriers, photons coupled onto the Au nanoantennas excite resonant plasmons, which decay into energetic "hot" holes emitted over the Schottky barrier at the Au/p-Si interface, resulting in a photocurrent. In our device, the active Schottky area consists of Au/p-Si contact and is very small, whereas the probing pad for external electrical interconnection is larger but consists of Au/Ti/p-Si contact having a comparatively higher Schottky barrier, thus producing negligible photo and dark currents.We describe fabrication that involves an electron-beam lithography step overlaid with photolithography. This highly compact component is very promising for applications in high-density Si photonics.     

Improving SERS uniformity by isolating hot spots in gold rod-in-shell nanoparticles

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) tags show ultrasensitivity and multiplexing abilities due to strong and characteristic Raman signals and therefore can be utilized as optical labeling agents similar to fluorescent dyes and quantum dots for biosensing and bioimaging. However, SERS tags have the difficulty to realize quantitative analysis due to the uniformity and reproducibility issue. In this work, we have reported on a new type of SERS tag called Au rod-in-shell (RIS) gap-enhanced Raman tag (GERT). With the high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and optical absorbance measurements, we have demonstrated the subnanometer sized gap junctions inside the RIS GERTs. SERS measurements and FDTD calculations show that the core–shell subnanometer gap geometry in the RIS GERTs not only generates strong SERS hot spots but also isolates SERS hot spots by Au shells to avoid the influence when the particle aggregates form, therefore showing better SERS uniformity and stronger SERS intensity than normal Au nanorods. Those RIS NPs exhibit great potential as the labeling agents for SERS-based bioimaging and biosensing applications.     

金纳米线接触构型相关的双重负微分电阻与整流效应

运用第一性原理密度泛函理论(DFT)和非平衡格林函数(NEGF)方法, 研究了[111]Au纳米线与1, 4-二硫苯酚(DTB)构成的分子结的电子输运性质. 构建并优化不同的Au-DTB接触构型, 计算发现: 尖端顶位构型最利于电流输运; 非对称构型大多具有很好的整流特性(最大整流比为25.6); 部分结构出现双重负微分电阻(NDR)效应. 分析表明, 整流效应主要源于非对称接触构型两端S-Au键的稳定性差别; 尖端金原子与硫原子的耦合能级中, 近费米面的能级对低压区电子传输起主要作用; 电压增大, 离费米面较远的能级对输运起主导作用, DTB的本征能级也逐渐参与, 这一转变致使电流出现两峰一谷的双重NDR效应.     

具有Au/MoO_3空穴注入层的有机发光二极管

研究了单层MoO3(5nm)和复合Au(4nm)/MoO3(5nm)HILs对OLEDs器件性能的影响,器件结构为ITO/HIL/NPB(40nm)/Alq3(60nm)/LiF(1nm)/Al(100nm)。与单层MoO3HIL的器件相比,具有复合Au/MoO3HIL的器件具有较大的电流和亮度。这是由于Au的功函数介于ITO和MoO3之间,导致Au的引入提高了空穴的注入效率。     

Ultrafast transport of laser-excited spin-polarized carriers in Au/Fe/MgO(001)

Hot carrier-induced spin dynamics is analyzed in epitaxial Au/Fe/MgO(001) by a time domain approach. We excite a spin current pulse in Fe by 35 fs laser pulses. The transient spin polarization, which is probed at the Au surface by optical second harmonic generation, changes its sign after a few hundred femtoseconds. This is explained by a competition of ballistic and diffusive propagation considering energy-dependent hot carrier relaxation rates. In addition, we observe the decay of the spin polarization within 1 ps, which is associated with the hot carrier spin relaxation time in Au.     

背入射Au/ZnO/Al结构肖特基紫外探测器

设计制作了一种Au/ZnO/Al结构的紫外探测器,光的入射方式采用背入射式。ZnO薄膜是用磁控溅射在蓝宝石衬底上制备的。I-V测试表明:Au与ZnO形成了肖特基接触。得到探测器的光响应峰值在352nm,截止边为382nm,可见抑制比达一个量级。由于该探测器是一种垂直结构器件,对于进一步实现ZnO紫外探测器阵列及单光子探测有很好的研究价值。     

Au-Si-Au结点电子输运性质的第一性原理计算

采用密度泛函理论和非平衡格林函数相结合的方法对Au(100)-Si-Au(100) 系统左侧对顶位、右侧对空位的纳米结点的电子输运性质进行了理论模拟计算, 结果得到纳米结点的电导随电极距离(d_z)增大而减小. 在d_z =9.72 Å时, 结点的结合能最低, 结构最稳定, 此时电导为1.227G₀ (G₀=2e²/h), 其电子输运通道主要是Si原子的p_x, p_y和 p_z轨道电子形成的最高占居轨道共振峰; 在外偏压下, 电流-电压曲线表现出线性特征; 随着外加正负电压的增大, 电导略有减小, 且表现出不对称性的变化. 关键词： 硅原子 电子输运 密度泛函理论 非平衡格林函数     

Spin-polarized transport in inhomogeneous magnetic semiconductors: theory of magnetic/nonmagnetic p-n junctions

A theory of spin-polarized transport in inhomogeneous magnetic semiconductors is developed and applied to magnetic/nonmagnetic p-n junctions. Several phenomena with possible spintronic applications are predicted, including spin-voltaic effect, spin valve effect, exponential and giant magnetoresistance. It is demonstrated that only nonequilibrium spin can be injected across the space-charge region of a p-n junction, so that there is no spin injection (or extraction) at low bias.     

Pt/Au/n-InGaN肖特基接触的电流输运机理

基于热电子发射和热电子场发射模式,利用I-V方法研究了Pt/Au/n-InGaN肖特基接触的势垒特性和电流输运机理,结果表明,在不同背景载流子浓度下,Pt/Au/n-InGaN肖特基势垒特性差异明显.研究发现,较低生长温度制备的InGaN中存在的高密度施主态氮空位（V_N）缺陷导致背景载流子浓度增高,同时通过热电子发射模式拟合得到高背景载流子浓度的InGaN肖特基势垒高度和理想因子与热电子场发射模式下的结果差别很大,表明V_N缺陷诱发了隧穿机理并降低了肖特基势垒高度,相应的隧穿电流显著增大了肖特基势垒总的输运电流,证实热电子发射和缺陷辅助的隧穿机理共同构成了肖特基势垒的电流输运机理.低背景载流子浓度的InGaN肖特基势垒在热电子发射和热电子场发射模式下拟合的结果接近一致,表明热电子发射是其主导的电流输运机理.     

(GaAs)n(n=1-4)原子链电子输运性质的理论计算

本文利用密度泛函理论结合非平衡格林函数的方法, 对 (GaAs)_n(n=1-4)直线原子链与Au(100)-3×3两半无限电极耦合构成Au-(GaAs)_n-Au纳米结点的电子输运性质进行了第一性原理计算. 在各结点拉伸过程中, 对其结构进行了优化, 得到各结点稳定平衡结构时Ga-As的平均键长分别为0.220, 0.224, 0.223, 0.223 nm, 平衡电导分别为2.328G₀, 1.167G₀, 0.639G₀, 1.237G₀; 通过对结点投影态密度的计算, 发现电子传输主要是通过Ga, As原子中p_x与p_y电子轨道相互作用形成的π键进行的. 在0-2 V的电压范围内, 对于(GaAs)_n(n=1-3)的原子链的电流随电压增大而增大, I-V曲线呈线性关系, 表现出类似金属导电行为; 对于(GaAs)₄原子链在0.6-0.7 V, 0.8-0.9 V的电压范围内却存在负微分电阻现象.     

Process and device characteristics of self-assembled metal nano-crystal EEPROM

Metal nanocrystals self-assembled on gate tunneling oxide can be used to replace the conventional Si/Ge nanocrystals as the floating gate in EEPROM cells. We have demonstrated the successful use of Au and W with their respective process dependence and self-assembly characteristics. The new material options can potentially enhance the applicability and functionality of the nanocrystal EEPROM device. Implications on process integration, in particular the control oxide growth and overall thermal budget, are examined by microscopy, gate current injection and channel mobility monitoring. Charging by hot-carrier injection and control gate tunneling have both been observed by shifts in I–V characteristics. The electrostatic behavior of metal nanocrystals is similar to that of Si nanocrystals in terms of the asymmetrical threshold voltage on source–drain reversal after hot-carrier injection and the Coulomb blockade effects. The electrodynamic behavior is expected to be quite different due to the density of states, but further study is required for quantitative analysis.