Defect conduction bands, localization, and temperature-dependent electron emission from Al–Al2O3–Au diodes

Hickmott, T. W.

doi:10.1063/1.3504220

Cited by 23 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…9,10 Because of their simple structure and low temperature processing, MIM building blocks are also being considered for large area macroelectronics such as liquid crystal display (LCD) backplanes. 11,12 For many of these applications, figures of merit include high asymmetry, strong nonlinearity, and fast responsivity of current vs. voltage (I-V) behavior at low voltages.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigation of the impact of insulator material on the performance of dissimilar electrode metal-insulator-metal diodes

Alimardani

King

French

et al. 2014

Journal of Applied Physics

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Articles you may be interested inEnhancing metal-insulator-insulator-metal tunnel diodes via defect enhanced direct tunneling Appl. Phys. Lett. 105, 082902 (2014); 10.1063/1.4893735 Conduction processes in metal-insulator-metal diodes with Ta2O5 and Nb2O5 insulators deposited by atomic layer deposition J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 32, 01A122 (2014); 10.1116/1.4843555 Impact of top electrode on electrical stress reliability of metal-insulator-metal capacitor with amorphous ZrTiO 4 film Appl. Phys. Lett. 96, 133501 (2010); 10.1063/1.3377914 Influence of the electrode material on Hf O 2 metal-insulator-metal capacitors High-temperature conduction behaviors of HfO 2 / TaN -based metal-insulator-metal capacitorsThe performance of thin film metal-insulator-metal (MIM) diodes is investigated for a variety of large and small electron affinity insulators using ultrasmooth amorphous metal as the bottom electrode. Nb 2 O 5 , Ta 2 O 5 , ZrO 2 , HfO 2 , Al 2 O 3 , and SiO 2 amorphous insulators are deposited via atomic layer deposition (ALD). Reflection electron energy loss spectroscopy (REELS) is utilized to measure the band-gap energy (E G ) and energy position of intrinsic sub-gap defect states for each insulator. E G of as-deposited ALD insulators are found to be Nb 2 O 5 ¼ 3.8 eV, Ta 2 O 5 ¼ 4.4 eV, ZrO 2 ¼ 5.4 eV, HfO 2 ¼ 5.6 eV, Al 2 O 3 ¼ 6.4 eV, and SiO 2 ¼ 8.8 eV with uncertainty of 60.2 eV. Current vs. voltage asymmetry, non-linearity, turn-on voltage, and dominant conduction mechanisms are compared. Al 2 O 3 and SiO 2 are found to operate based on Fowler-Nordheim tunneling. Al 2 O 3 shows the highest asymmetry. ZrO 2 , Nb 2 O 5 , and Ta 2 O 5 based diodes are found to be dominated by Frenkel-Poole emission at large biases and exhibit lower asymmetry. The electrically estimated trap energy levels for defects that dominate Frenkel-Poole conduction are found to be consistent with the energy levels of surface oxygen vacancy defects observed in REELS measurements. For HfO 2 , conduction is found to be a mix of trap assisted tunneling and Frenkel-Poole emission. Insulator selection criteria in regards to MIM diodes applications are discussed. V C 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigation of the impact of insulator material on the performance of dissimilar electrode metal-insulator-metal diodes

Alimardani

King

French

et al. 2014

Journal of Applied Physics

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“…Conduction through the device is dominated by tunneling, and operation is relatively insensitive to temperature. Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) devices are of interest for hot electron transistors; 1,2 high speed diodes for rectenna based infrared (IR) energy harvesting, 3,4 IR detectors, 5 and thermal imaging; 6 selector diodes for resistive random access memory (RRAM); 7,8 tunneling cathodes; [9][10][11] and large area macroelectronics. 12,13 Figures of merit for MIM diodes include the asymmetry, nonlinearity, and turn-on voltage (V ON ).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhancing metal-insulator-insulator-metal tunnel diodes via defect enhanced direct tunneling

Alimardani

Conley

2014

Applied Physics Letters

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Articles you may be interested inInvestigation of the impact of insulator material on the performance of dissimilar electrode metal-insulator-metal diodes J. Appl. Phys. 116, 024508 (2014); 10.1063/1.4889798 Conduction processes in metal-insulator-metal diodes with Ta2O5 and Nb2O5 insulators deposited by atomic layer deposition J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 32, 01A122 (2014); 10.1116/1.4843555Step tunneling enhanced asymmetry in asymmetric electrode metal-insulator-insulator-metal tunnel diodes Impact of electrode roughness on metal-insulator-metal tunnel diodes with atomic layer deposited Al2O3 tunnel barriers J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 30, 01A113 (2012); 10.1116/1.3658380Controlled barrier modification in Nb/NbOx/Ag metal insulator metal tunnel diodes

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“…24,25,39 Amorphous Al 2 O 3 has oxygen vacancies that can form neutral F-centers, oxygen vacancies with two electrons, or show that there is $1.5 Â 10 20 cm À3 of negative charge after anodization in bor-H 2 O solution that anneals out when voltage is applied to Al-Al 2 O 3 -Au diodes. 41,42 This is a minimum value for the concentration of defect centers in anodic Al 2 O 3 . Annealing Al 2 O 3 in contact with graphite introduces defects that exhibit thermoluminescence (TL) with a peak TL intensity at $400 nm.…”

Section: A Electronic Processes In Al-al 2 O 3 -Ag Diodesmentioning

confidence: 98%

Optical microcavities and enhanced electroluminescence from electroformed Al-Al2O3-Ag diodes

Hickmott

2013

Journal of Applied Physics

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Surface plasmon polariton enhanced electroluminescence and electron emission from electroformed Al-Al2O3-Ag diodes Surface plasmon polariton-assisted electron emission and voltage-controlled negative resistance of Al -Al 2 O 3 -Au diodes Electroluminescence (EL) and electron emission into vacuum (EM) occur when a non-destructive dielectric breakdown of Al-Al 2 O 3 -Ag diodes, electroforming, results in the development of a filamentary region in which current-voltage (I-V) characteristics exhibit voltage-controlled negative resistance. The temperature dependence of I-V curves, EM, and, particularly, EL of Al-Al 2 O 3 -Ag diodes with anodic Al 2 O 3 thicknesses between 12 nm and 30 nm, has been studied. Two filters, a long-pass (LP) filter with transmission of photons with energies less than 3.0 eV and a short-pass (SP) filter with photon transmission between 3.0 and 4.0 eV, have been used to characterize EL. The voltage threshold for EL with the LP filter, V LP , is $1.5 V. V LP is nearly independent of Al 2 O 3 thickness and of temperature and is 0.3-0.6 V less than the threshold voltage for EL for the SP filter, V SP . EL intensity is primarily between 1.8 and 3.0 eV when the bias voltage, V S Շ 7 V. EL in the thinnest diodes is enhanced compared to EL in thicker diodes. For increasing V S , for diodes with the smallest Al 2 O 3 thicknesses, there is a maximum EL intensity, L MX , at a voltage, V LMX , followed by a decrease to a plateau. L MX and EL intensity at 4.0 V in the plateau region depend exponentially on Al 2 O 3 thickness. The ratio of L MX at 295 K for a diode with 12 nm of Al 2 O 3 to L MX for a diode with 25 nm of Al 2 O 3 is $140. The ratio of EL intensity with the LP filter to EL intensity with the SP filter, LP/SP, varies between $3 and $35; it depends on Al 2 O 3 thickness and V S . Enhanced EL is attributed to the increase of the spontaneous emission rate of a dipole in a non-resonant optical microcavity. EL photons interact with the Ag and Al films to create surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) at the metal-Al 2 O 3 interfaces. SPPs generate large electromagnetic fields in the filamentary region of the electroformed Al-Al 2 O 3 -Ag diode, which then acts as an optical microcavity. A model is proposed for electronic processes in electroformed Al-Al 2 O 3 -Ag diodes. V C 2013 AIP Publishing LLC. [http://dx.

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Defect conduction bands, localization, and temperature-dependent electron emission from Al–Al2O3–Au diodes

Cited by 23 publications

References 53 publications

Investigation of the impact of insulator material on the performance of dissimilar electrode metal-insulator-metal diodes

Investigation of the impact of insulator material on the performance of dissimilar electrode metal-insulator-metal diodes

Enhancing metal-insulator-insulator-metal tunnel diodes via defect enhanced direct tunneling

Optical microcavities and enhanced electroluminescence from electroformed Al-Al2O3-Ag diodes

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