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Conduction mechanisms and charge storage in Si-nanocrystals metal-oxide-semiconductor memory devices studied with conducting atomic force microscopy
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In this work, we demonstrate that conductive atomic force microscopy (C-AFM) is a very powerful tool to investigate, at the nanoscale, metal-oxide-semiconductor structures with silicon nanocrystals (Si-nc) embedded in the gate oxide as memory devices. The high lateral resolution of this technique allows us to study extremely small areas ( ~ 300nm2) and, therefore, the electrical properties of a reduced number of Si-nc. C-AFM experiments have demonstrated that Si-nc enhance the gate oxide electrical conduction due to trap-assisted tunneling. On the other hand, Si-nc can act as trapping centers. The amount of charge stored in Si-nc has been estimated through the change induced in the barrier height measured from the I-V characteristics. The results show that only ~ 20% of the Si-nc are charged, demonstrating that the electrical behavior at the nanoscale is consistent with the macroscopic characterization.
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PORTI I PUJAL, Marc, et al. Conduction mechanisms and charge storage in Si-nanocrystals metal-oxide-semiconductor memory devices studied with conducting atomic force microscopy. Journal of Applied Physics. 2005. Vol. 98, num. 056101-056103. ISSN 0021-8979. [consulted: 8 of June of 2026]. Available at: https://hdl.handle.net/2445/24883