Nanocrystalline si formation by pulsed laser deposition/annealing techniques and its charge storage effect

Abstract

Si nanocrystals were fabricated in a SiO2 film by pulsed laser deposition followed by annealing in an O-2 atmosphere. High resolution transmission electron microscopy and photoluminescence analyses demonstrate the existence of Si nanocrystals in the SiO2 films, whose average size is 2 similar to 4 nm. Metal-oxide-silicon structures containing a SiO2 layer are shown to exhibit capacitance-voltage hysteresis under several gate voltage sweep conditions. A field effect transistor with a SiO2 layer as a gate insulator was fabricated, and this revealed a memory effect. It is shown that the charge storage memory effect is a likely consequence of charging/discharging at the Si nanocrystals.