Determination of the characteristic length of thickness fluctuations for a tunneling-thin insulator in MIS structures from electrical data

New methods for determining the “correlation length” for thickness fluctuations of a thin insulator film from data obtained in measurements of the electrical characteristics of MIS tunnel structures, i.e., without the use of microscopy, have been suggested and tested. One of these methods relies on statistical processing of electric current data for a random sample of structures. The other technique analyzes abrupt downward changes in current, observed in tests of devices under a sufficiently high bias. The methods have been tested on Al/SiO₂/Si tunnel structures. The resulting estimates of the characteristic scale of thickness fluctuations are compared with the data obtained in direct measurements of this scale for the same oxide layers.     

Laser deposition of gallium nitride films

Insulating c-oriented hexagonal epitaxial gallium nitride (GaN) films have been obtained by means of pulsed laser sputtering of a gallium target in nonactivated nitrogen atmosphere. The GaN films were deposited onto (0001)-oriented sapphire substrates either directly or above a ZnO buffer layer. The laser-deposited films exhibit edge photoluminescence at 370 nm.     

Investigation of the operation of a bipolar transistor in the mode of a nanosecond opening switch

The results of an experimental study of the operating mode of a high-voltage bipolar transistor are presented. This mode provides an abrupt (nanosecond-duration) recovery of the blocking ability of the collector in a common-base circuit and the formation of high-voltage pulses with a nanosecond rise time.     

Static and dynamic characteristics of antiparallel diode as part of switching power module

A numerical simulation of the operation of a fast antiparallel diode in the switching power module of an autonomous voltage inverter is carried out. The time of turning off the transient and the static and transient heat losses in the diode are calculated as a function of the electrophysical parameters of the semiconductor diode structure.     

Radiative recombination in a silicon MOS tunnel structure

Recombination luminescence spectra of tunnel Al/SiO₂/p-Si MOS structures have been studied experimentally. A mathematical reconstruction of these spectra taking into account the loss by photon reabsorption is carried out. For the first time, the experimental data are presented in absolute units (W eV^?1). A relationship is shown between the shape of the spectrum and the energy of injected electrons, which is defined by the applied voltage. The rate of energy loss by photon emission has been estimated. The effect of the oxide degradation on the luminescence characteristics of MOS structures is considered.     

Structural and electrical properties of the Ge x Si1−x /Si heterojunctions obtained by the method of direct bonding

The results of studying the structural and electrical properties of structures produced by the method of direct bonding of Ge _x Si_1?x and Si wafers are reported. The wafers were cut from the crystals grown by the Czochralski method. Continuity of the interface and the crystal-lattice defects were studied by X-ray methods using synchrotron radiation and by scanning electron microscopy. Measurements of the forward and reverse current-voltage characteristics of the p-Ge _x Si_1?x /n-Si diodes made it possible to assess the effect of the crystallattice defects on the electrical properties of heterojunctions. Satisfactory electrical parameters suggest that the technology of direct bonding is promising for the fabrication of large-area Ge _x Si_1?x /Si heterojunctions.     

Threshold energies in the light emission characteristics of silicon MOS tunnel diodes

Hot electron luminescence of MOS tunnel structures with sub-3 nm oxide layer on p-Si is experimentally studied. Radiation spectra are shown to exhibit thresholds whose positions depend on the initial energy E of injected electrons. Simultaneously, a threshold-like increase of the light intensity at a selected wavelength as a function of E is revealed, and attributed to the onset of different luminescence mechanisms.     

Degradation of MOS tunnel structures at high current density

The stability of tunneling-thin (2–3 nm) SiO₂ films during prolonged flow of high-density currents (10²–10³ A/cm²) was investigated. A sharp increase in the charge which a tunneling MOS structure is capable of transmitting without degradation on switching from Fowler-Nordheim injection to direct tunneling (10³ C/cm² and 10⁷ C/cm², respectively) was observed. The degradation of SiO₂ films was investigated using Al/SiO₂/n-Si/p ⁺-Si thyristor structures with a positive bias on the semiconductor, i.e., with reverse bias of the MOS structure. The use of these devices accounted for the uniformity of the current distribution over the area and made it possible to monitor the state of the insulator layer by measuring the device gain in the phototransistor mode. Fiz. Tekh. Poluprovodn. 32, 743–747 (June 1998)     

High retention of polarization in polycrystalline M/PZT/M capacitors in the presence of depolarization field near grain boundaries

Recently, we reported on the photovoltaic current observed in poled capacitors with polycrystalline Pb(ZrTi)O(3) (PZT) films, where (111)-oriented PZT grains are separated by an ultrathin semiconductor PbO phase. This photocurrent is driven by the depolarization field, which is generated by residual uncompensated polarization charge located on grain boundaries near electrodes. We showed that the photocurrent can serve as a criterion of existence of the depolarization field and demonstrated that this field is retained in the film for at least one year. Here, we present new experimental and numerical results which confirm the proposed conception of the photovoltaic effect. We study the photocurrent depending on the kind of electrodes, preliminary illumination in an open-circuit regime, and light intensity of LED, and give evidence of retention of the depolarization field in the films for at least for one and one-half years. The numerical study of the photovoltaic effect at extremely high photogeneration rate shows that total compensation of the polarization charge by photoexcited carriers in these structures is impossible. This photovoltaic effect can be used for nondestructive readout in ferroelectric memory.