Dark-capacitance transients in MIS tunnel diodes

Dark-capacitance transients in MIS tunnel diodes switched from accumulation to deep depletion depend on the interface state occupancy. This time dependent function is derived and its behavior described for electron emission and electron-hole pair generation with tunneling and thermally controlled occupancies. A new method of determining the tunneling relaxation time constant τ_T from the electron emission transient at low temperature is described. Measurements of MIS tunnel diodes with oxide thickness d_ox = 17 to 80 Å agree with theory and the resultant values of τ_T compare with previously reported results from photocapacitance[2].