Tight-binding investigation of electron tunneling through ultrathin SiO2gate oxides

✍ Scribed by M. Städele; B.R. Tuttle; K. Hess; L.F. Register

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 126 KB
• Volume: 27
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0749-6036
• DOI: 10.1006/spmi.2000.0850

✦ Synopsis

We investigate electron tunneling through ultrathin gate oxides using scattering theory within a tight-binding framework. We employ Si[100]/SiO 2 /Si[100] model junctions with oxide thicknesses between 7 and 18 Å. This approach accounts for the three-dimensional microscopic structure of the model junctions and for the three-dimensional nature of the corresponding complex energy bands. The equilibrium positions of the atoms in the heterostructure are derived from first-principles density-functional calculations. We show that the present method yields qualitative and quantitative differences from conventional effective-mass theory.