EXTENDED (1.1-2.9 EV) HOT-CARRIER-INDUCED PHOTON-EMISSION IN N-CHANNEL SI MOSFETS

In this work we present an extended set of experimental data obtained analyzing the spectrum of the light emitted by n-MOSFET's operating at different biases and temperatures. The analysis has been performed in a wide energy range (1.07-2.88 eV) at different device biases and temperatures obtaining significant information for the interpretation of photon emission mechanisms. The results suggest that the low- and high-energy parts of the photon distribution may be dominated by different emission mechanisms: electron-hole recombination and Bremstrahlung of hot electrons, respectively. This tentative interpretation is confirmed by the comparison between the measured photon energy distribution (PED) and the calculated electron energy distribution (EED) in the device obtained by Monte Carlo (MC) simulations. This comparison leads to the important observation that the high-energy tail of the photon distribution does reproduce the main features of the hot-electron tail.