Memory effects related to deep levels in metal-oxide-semiconductor structure with nanocrystalline Si

Nanocrystalline(nc)-Si was grown on SiO2 by rapid thermal chemical vapor deposition. The tunneling oxide layer of a thickness of 4 nm was formed on p-type Si(100) by rapid thermal oxidation at 1050 degreesC for 30 s. Metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) structures were fabricated and capacitance-voltage characterization was carried out to study the memory effects of the nc-Si embedded in the MOS structure. We found the memory effect to be dominantly related to hydrogen-related traps, in addition to being influenced by the three-dimensional quantum confinement and Coulomb charge effects. Deep level transient spectroscopy reveal that the activation energies of the hydrogen-related traps are E-v+0.29 eV (H1) and E-v+0.42 eV (H2), and the capture cross sections are 4.70x10(-16) cm(2) and 1.44x10(-15) cm(2), respectively. The presence of Si-H and Si-H-2 bonds was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.