High-bias studies on metal-insulator-metal and metal-insulator-semiconductor tunnel junctions

"Tunnel junctions were fabricated oil the grown-oxides of both cleaved single-crystal silicon and evaported aluminum and have been studied over a wide bias range. At low biases the previously reported inelastic and selfenergy structure is observed, while at intermediate biases tunneling into interface states is identified in p-typesilicon junctions. At high biases both silicon and aluminum junctions display behavior which cannot be understood within the framework of the average potential barrier model; in particular, aluminum junctions with lead counterelectrodes show both anomalous structure and hysteresis in their I-V characteristics. To explain this behavior, a model is proposed in which (resonant) tunneling proceeds via the energy levels of mobile impurities in the barrier. Using this model, the hysteresis data is analyzed in detail in order to extract parameters describing the position and energy distribution of the .impurities. These parameters obtained from the hysteresis data are found to simultaneously predict the anomalous I-V structure, indicating the common origin of both effects. From this analysis it is found that the impurities are located predominantly near the junction interfaces and that the lead-aluminum oxide interface can be thought of as a narrow ""semiconductor transition region"" separating the metal and the oxide. The aluminum-aluminum oxide interface is adequately characterized by a shallow impurity band. The high-bias behavior of silicon junctions is qualitatively described in terms of tunneling via the previously observed trapping centers in grown silicon oxide."

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Physics

Year dc:date

2012

Author dc:creator

• Depp, Steven Wade

Contributors dc:contributor

• Peacock, R.N.

• metal-insulator-metal
• metal-insulator-semiconductor
• tunnel junctions

Statement dc:rights

• ©1972 Depp

Language dc:language

en

Identifier

1940373

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/29978