Single-electron charging in nanocrystalline silicon point-contacts

✍ Scribed by Z.A.K Durrani; T Kamiya; Y.T Tan; H Ahmed; N Lloyd

• Book ID: 104305690
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2002
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 662 KB
• Volume: 63
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0167-9317
• DOI: 10.1016/s0167-9317(02)00602-0

✦ Synopsis

Room-temperature single-electron effects are observed in 20 nm 3 20 nm point-contact transistors fabricated in nanocrystalline silicon thin films. The films are deposited using low-temperature plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition and contain grains typically 4-8 nm in size. Low-temperature oxidation and high-temperature annealing is used to oxidise selectively the grain boundaries. Single-electron effects occur in crystalline silicon grains isolated by tunnel barriers at the grain boundaries. The thermal processing improves the grain-boundary tunnel barrier and increases the maximum temperature for single-electron effects. Similar effects are also observed in devices fabricated in low-pressure chemical vapour deposited polysilicon films.