Observation and creation of current leakage sites in ultrathin silicon dioxide films using scanning tunneling microscopy

We used scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) to investigate the local leakage current through ultrathin silicon dioxide (SiO2) films grown on Si substrates. Individual leakage sites, which were coated by hot-electron injection from the STM tip under a high sample bias of +10 V, were identified from the local change in surface conductivity due to defect creation in the oxide films. When we reversed the stressing polarity (using a negative sample bias) no leakage sites were created in the oxide film. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics.