Thermodynamic magnetization of a strongly correlated two-dimensional electron system

We measure thermodynamic magnetization of a low-disordered, strongly correlated two-dimensional electron system in silicon. Pauli spin susceptibility is observed to grow critically at low electron densities—behavior that is characteristic of the existence of a phase transition. A new, parameter-free method is used to directly determine the spectrum characteristics (Landé g-factor and the cyclotron mass) when the Fermi level lies outside the spectral gaps and the inter-level interactions between quasiparticles are avoided. It turns out that, unlike in the Stoner scenario, the critical growth of the spin susceptibility originates from the dramatic enhancement of the effective mass, while the enhancement of the g-factor is weak and practically independent of the electron density.     

Magnetic-Field-Induced Semimetal-Insulator-like Transition in Highly Oriented Pyrolitic Graphite

We report the extraordinarily large positive magnetoresistances （MR, 69400% at 4.5K under a magnetic field of 8.15 T）, de Hass-van Alphen oscillations effect at 10 K and the semimetal-Jnsulator-like transition in a wide range of temperature in highly oriented pyrolitic graphite （HOPG）. Besides a dominating ordinary MR （OMR） mechanism in the free-electron mode, it is realized from qualitative analysis that the Coulomb interacting quasiparticles within graphite layers play some roles. However it is difficult to associate the transition with the simple OMR theory. In order to investigate the possible origins of the transition, further analysis is carried out. It is revealed that the magnetic-field-induced behaviour is responsible for the semimetal-insulator-like transitions in HOPG.     

High Field Electrical Conduction in Pre-Formed A1-ZnS-AI Thin Films in Metal-Insulator-Metal Devices

The high field electrical conduction mechanism for the widely used ZnS thin films in the microelectronic industry is investigated. Experimental data on the dc conduction as a function of the applied bias for the A1-ZnS-A1 devices is carefully compared with the theoretical equations given by Schottky and Poole-Freukel. The resu/ts yield the value of the coefficient of the barrier lowering compatible with the Schottky theory rather than the Poole-Frenkel theory, which are also in agreement with the results reported earlier by Maekawa [Phys. Rev. Lett. 24 （1970） 1175]     

Influence of strain on the tunneling magnetoresistance in diluted magnetic semiconductor trilayer and double barrier structures

The influence of strain on hole tunneling in trilayer and double barrier structures made of two diluted magnetic semiconductors (DMS) (Ga, Mn)As, separated by a thin layer of non-magnetic AlAs is investigated theoretically. The strain is caused by lattice mismatch as the whole structure is grown on a (In_0.15Ga_0.85)As buffer layer. The tensile strain makes the easy axis of magnetization orient along the growth direction. We found that biaxial strain has a strong influence on the tunneling current because the spin splitting at is comparable to the Fermi energy E_F. Tensile strain decreases the tunneling magnetoresistance ratio.     

Inversion layer resistance in silicon inversion layer solar cells

The inversion layer resistance is very important for metal-insulator-semiconductor inversion layer (MIS/IL) solar cells, and usually it is the main part of the series resistance. It is found that the inversion layer resistance and the junction depth are determined by the operating voltage for an MIS/IL solar cell. On the basis of MIS theory, a general relationship between the operating voltage and the inversion layer resistance (and the junction depth) has been investigated. Practical computations have been done for MIS/IL solar cells with a silicon nitride insulator layer. It is found that the inversion layer resistance has a minimum value for operating voltage near 0.4 V, and the junction depth decreases monotonically with the increase of the operating voltage.     

The electronic structure of alkali-metal layers on semiconductor surfaces

Alkali-metal layers on semiconductor surfaces are model systems for metal-semiconductor contacts, Schottky barriers, and metallization processes. The strong decrease of the work function as a function of alkali-metal coverage is also technically made use of. Recently, however, interest in these systems is growing owing to ongoing controversial discussions about questions like: Is the adsorbate system at monolayer coverage metallic or semiconducting, and does the metallization take place in the alkali overlayer or in the top layer of the semiconductor? Is the bonding ionic or covalent? What ist the absolute coverage at saturation? What are the adsorption sites? Do all alkali metals behave similar on the same semiconductor surface? We try to answer some of the questions for Li, Na, K and Cs on Si(111)(2×1), K and Cs on Si(111)(7×7) and on GaAs(110), and Na and K on Si(100)(2×1) employing the techniques of direct and inverse photoemission.     

Effects of large cation size-disorder on the magnetic properties of the rare earth cobaltates, Ln0.5Ba0.5CoO3

Magnetic and electrical properties of Ln_0.5Ba_0.5CoO_3−δ with Ln=Dy and Er have been investigated to examine the effects of large cation size-disorder. While the Dy compound shows the small magnetic anomaly around 290 K just as the Gd derivative, the Er compound is essentially paramagnetic due to the large cation size-disorder. Compositions with the same average A-site cation radii as Dy_0.5Ba_0.5CoO_2.91 and Er_0.5Ba_0.5CoO_2.9, but with smaller size-disorder, show progressive evolution of ferromagnetism and metallic properties with decreasing disorder.     

Thickness determination of thin and ultra-thin SiO2 films by C-AFM IV-spectroscopy

Conductive atomic force microscopy was used to determine the electrical oxide thickness for five different silicon dioxide layers with thickness in the order of 1.6-5.04 nm. The electrical thickness results were compared with values determined by ellipsometry. A semi-analytical tunnelling current model with one single parameter set was used to superpose current/voltage curves in both the direct tunnelling and the Fowler-Nordheim tunnelling regime regions. The overall electrical oxide thickness was determined by statistical means from results of nearly 3000 IV-curves recorded for different conductive CoCr-coated tips. Good agreement between the shape of model and experimental data was achieved, widely independent of the oxide thickness. Compared with the ellipsometry value, the electrical thickness was larger by a value of 0.36 nm (22%) for the thinnest oxide and smaller by a value of 0.31 nm (6%) for the thickest oxide, while intermediate values yielded differences better than 0.15 nm (<6%). The physical differences between the measurement techniques were shown to contribute to this observation. In addition, statistical deviations between single and multiple measurements using a single tip and using a number of different tips were analysed. The causes, for example, natural oxide thickness variations, tip wear, air humidity induced effects and contaminations, are evaluated and discussed. The method proposed was able to determine the electrical oxide thickness with a standard deviation in the order of ±6-9%. The results suggest that for optimal results it is necessary to perform several repetitions of IV-measurements for one sample and, in addition, to employ more than one tip.     

Ground state magnetic properties of ultrathin fcc Fe and Co films on Cu(001) surfaces

The oxidation characteristics of silicon implanted with a low dose of nitrogen (1–3×10¹⁵cm^–2) have been studied for dry oxidation conditions at 1020°C. The wafers were subjected to a pre-oxidation annealing. Complete inhibition of the oxide growth occurs in the initial stage of oxidation, while the oxidation rate for prolonged oxidation is identical to that for pure silicon. The oxidation resistance increases with the implantation dose. The resistance is attributed to the formation of a nitrogen-rich surface film during annealing. This layer, which consists of only a few monolayers, is presumably composed of oxynitride. The electrical characteristics of MOS capacitors formed on implanted wafers show that the interface state density is not significantly increased by the low-dose N implantation.     

Metal--Insulator Transition in Ca-Doped Sr14-xCaxCu24O41 Systems Probed by Thermopower Measurements

High quality Sr14-xCaxCu24O41 single-crystals are successfully grown by floating-zone technique, and the trans- port properties are studied. The temperature dependence of resistivity along the c-axis direction is semiconductor- like for x ≤ 10 and it can be fitted by the thermal activation equation p = po exp（ △ /kBT） with kB being the Boltzmann constant and A the activation energy. A break in the slope of thermopower （S） versus the inverse temperature （1 IT） corresponding to the formation of charge-density waves （CD W） is first observed for x ≤ 6. The temperature dependence of thermopower becomes metallic for x ≥ 8 while the resistivity is still semiconductorlike. We propose that the insulation behaviour of the resistivity in the Ca doping range 8 ≤ x ≤ 11 could result from the localization of the charge carriers due to the disorder induced by Ca doping and a revised electronic phase diagram is derived based on our observations.     

Surface acoustic wave propagation and inhomogeneities in low-density two-dimensional electron systems near the metal-insulator transition

We have measured the surface acoustic wave velocity shift in a GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure containing a two-dimensional electron system (2DES) in a low-density regime (<10¹⁰ cm⁻²) at zero magnetic field. The interaction of the surface acoustic wave with the 2DES is not well described by a simple model using low-frequency conductivity measurements. We speculate that this conflict is a result of inhomogeneities in the 2DES, which become very important at low density. This has implications for the putative metal-insulator transition in two dimensions.     

C-AFM-based thickness determination of thin and ultra-thin SiO2 films by use of different conductive-coated probe tips

The influence of the probe tip type on the electrical oxide thickness result was researched for four differently coated conductive tip types using SiO₂ (oxide) films with optical thickness of 1.7-8.3 nm. For this purpose, conductive atomic force microscopy (C-AFM) was used to measure more than 7200 current-voltage (IV) curves. The electrical oxide thickness was determined on a statistical basis from the IV-curves using a recently published tunnelling model for C-AFM application. The model includes parameters associated with the probe tip types used. The evolution of the tip parameters is described in detail. For the theoretical tip parameters, measured and calculated IV-curves showed excellent agreement and the electrical oxide thickness versus the optical oxide thickness showed congruent behaviour, independent of the tip type. However, differences in the electrical oxide thickness were observed for the different tip types. The theoretical parameters were modified experimentally in order to reduce these differences. Theoretical and experimental tip parameters were compared and their effect on the differences in the electrical oxide thickness is discussed for the different tip types. Overall, it is shown that the proposed model provides a comprehensive framework for determining the electrical oxide thickness using C-AFM, for a wide range of oxide thicknesses and for differently coated conductive tips.     

Characterization of gadolinium oxide film by pulse laser deposition

In this work, Gd-oxide dielectric films were deposited on Si by pulse laser deposition method (PLD), moreover, the micro-structures and electrical properties were reported. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) indicated that Gd-oxide was polycrystalline Gd₂O₃ structure, and no Gd metal phase was detected. In addition, both interface at Si and Ni fully silicide (FUSI) gate were smooth without the formation of Si-oxide. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) confirmed the formation of Gd₂O₃ and gave an atom ratio of 1:1 for Gd:O, indicating O vacancies existed in Gd₂O₃ polycrystal matrix even at O₂ partial pressure of 20 mTorr. Electrical measurements indicated that the dielectric constant of Gd-oxide film was 6 and the leakage current was 0.1 A/cm² at gate bias of 1 V.     

The effect of interface states, excess capacitance and series resistance in the Al/SiO2/p-Si Schottky diodes

The current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of Al/SiO₂/p-Si metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) Schottky diodes were measured at room temperature. In addition the capacitance-voltage (C-V) and conductance-voltage (G-V) measurements are studied at frequency range of 10 kHz-1 MHz. The higher value of ideality factor of 3.25 was attributed to the presence of an interfacial insulator layer between metal and semiconductor and the high density of interface states localized at Si/SiO₂ interface. The density of interface states (N_ss) distribution profile as a function of (E_ss − E_v) was extracted from the forward bias I-V measurements by taking into account the bias dependence of the effective barrier height (Φ_e) at room temperature for the Schottky diode on the order of ≅4 × 10¹³ eV⁻¹ cm⁻²_. These high values of N_ss were responsible for the non-ideal behaviour of I-V and C-V characteristics. Frequency dispersion in C-V and G-V can be interpreted only in terms of interface states. The N_ss can follow the ac signal especially at low frequencies and yield an excess capacitance. Experimental results show that the I-V, C-V and G-V characteristics of SD are affected not only in N_ss but also in series resistance (R_s), and the location of N_ss and R_s has a significant on electrical characteristics of Schottky diodes.     

Analysis of current-voltage characteristics of inhomogeneous Schottky diodes at low temperatures

Two approaches of Gaussian distribution of barrier heights in inhomogeneous Schottky diodes have been analyzed by comparing the results for consistency between the two. For this the current-voltage characteristics of inhomogeneous Schottky diodes have been generated by using analytically solved thermionic-emission diffusion equation incorporating Gaussian distribution of barrier heights and by direct numerical integration over a barrier height range. The differences in the results obtained in two approaches are discussed and it is shown that the two approaches yield current-voltage characteristics with slightly different features. The discrepancies in the results obtained in two approaches are attributed to the same series resistance assumed for all elementary barriers of the distribution. It is shown that assigning same series resistance to all barrier of the distribution in numerical integration approach causes current saturation at low bias and inhibits intersection of current-voltage curves from being observable which otherwise occurs in the curves obtained using analytical equation. The paper deals with these aspects in details.     

The effect of series resistance on capacitance-voltage characteristics of Schottky barrier diodes

The capacitance-voltage (C-V) and current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of the Ti/p-Si Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) have been investigated taking into account the effect of the interface states and series resistance of the device. The forward C-V measurements have been carried out in the range frequency of 0.3-2 MHz (at six different frequencies). It is seen that the forward C-V plots exhibit anomalous peaks in the presence of a series resistance. It has been experimentally determined that the peak positions in the C-V plot shift towards lower voltages and the peak value of the capacitance decreases with increasing frequency. In addition to, the effect of series resistance on the capacitance is found appreciable at higher frequencies due to the capacitance decreases with increasing frequency.     

Frequency dependence of the resistive switching effect in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+y/Ag film heterocontacts

In this work we have performed the relaxation studies “in situ” of the electron instability effect (EIE) in the heterostructures based on BSCCO single crystals. The new effect of suppression of EIE or colossal electroresistance via application of an alternating low frequency electric field to the heterojunctions in the BSCCO-based single crystals has been found. It has been shown that the top possible frequencies for observation of the effect are of the order of 10³ Hz. This fact is interpreted as accumulation of the oxygen ions driven by the electric field to the interface. On the other hand, it has been shown that the switching events are limited by two time processes: t≈1 ms and about ten seconds. The first ones are caused by rearrangement of a charge net in the degraded surface at the electric field switching. The latter are caused by oxygen diffusion to vacancies under electric field above some threshold value. The considered experimental data confirm the correlation character of the HTSC properties as Mott systems, which appears in extreme sensitivity to the doping level, in the tendency to phase separation under external actions, in the hysteresis character of the metal-insulator transition.     

The barrier height inhomogeneity in Al/p-Si Schottky barrier diodes with native insulator layer

The current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of Al/p-Si Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) with native insulator layer were measured in the temperature range of 150-375 K. The estimated zero-bias barrier height Φ_B0 and the ideality factor n assuming thermionic emission (TE) theory show strong temperature dependence. Evaluation of the forward I-V data reveals an increase of zero-bias barrier height Φ_B0 but decrease of ideality factor n with increase in temperature. The conventional Richardson plot exhibits non-linearity below 250 K with the linear portion corresponding to activation energy of 0.41 eV and Richardson constant (A^*) value of 1.3 × 10⁻⁴ A cm⁻² K⁻² is determined from intercept at the ordinate of this experimental plot, which is much lower than the known value of 32 A cm² K² for holes in p-type Si. Such behavior is attributed to Schottky barrier inhomogene ties by assuming a Gaussian distribution of barrier heights (BHs) due to barrier height inhomogeneities that prevail at interface. Also, Φ_B0 versus q/2kT plot was drawn to obtain evidence of a Gaussian distribution of the BHs, and values of Φ_B0 = 1.055 eV and σ₀ = 0.13 V for the mean BH and zero-bias standard deviation have been obtained from this plot, respectively. Thus, the modified versus q/kT plot gives Φ_B0 and A^* as 1.050 eV and 40.08 A cm⁻² K⁻², respectively, without using the temperature coefficient of the barrier height. This value of the Richardson constant 40.03 A cm⁻² K⁻² is very close to the theoretical value of 32 A K⁻² cm⁻² for p-type Si. Hence, it has been concluded that the temperature dependence of the forward I-V characteristics of the Al/p-Si Schottky barrier diodes with native insulator layer can be successfully explained on the basis of TE mechanism with a Gaussian distribution of the barrier heights.     

Investigating the effects of the interface defects on the gate leakage current in MOSFETs

The effects of the interface defects on the gate leakage current have been numerically modeled. The results demonstrate that the shallow and deep traps have different effects on the dependence relation of the stress-induced leakage current on the oxide electric field in the regime of direct tunneling, whereas both traps keep the same dependence relation in the regime of Fowler-Nordheim tunneling. The results also shows that the stress-induced leakage current will be the largest at a moderate oxide voltage for the electron interface traps but it increases with the decreasing oxide voltage for the hole interface traps. The results illustrate that the stress-induced leakage current strongly depends on the location of the electron interface traps but it weakly depends on the location of the hole interface traps. The increase in the gate leakage current caused by the electron interface traps can predict the increase, then decrease in the stress-induced leakage current, with decreasing oxide thickness, which is observed experimentally. And the electron interface trap level will have a large effect on the peak height and position.     

Improved Programming Efficiency through Additional Boron Implantation at the Active Area Edge in 90nm Localized Charge-Trapping Non-volatile Memory

As the scaling-down of non-volatile memory （NVM） cells continues, the impact of shallow trench isolation （STI） on NVM cells becomes more severe. It has been observed in the 90nm localized charge-trapping non-volatile memory （NROMTM） that the programming efficiency of edge cells adjacent to STI is remarkably lower than that of other cells when channel hot electron injection is applied. Boron segregation is found to be mainly responsible for the low programming efficiency of edge cells. Meanwhile, an additional boron implantation of 10°tilt at the active area edge as a new solution to solve this problem is developed.