Tunneling ionization of deep centers in high-frequency electric fields

Ganichev, Sergey; Ketterl, Hermann; Perel, V. I.; Yassievich, I. N.; Prettl, Wilhelm

doi:10.1103/physrevb.65.085203

Cited by 11 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…These factors describe an effect similar to nuclear tunneling [78]. As shown in [107], the overlap of wavefunctions can be interpreted as a nuclear tunneling process. In this paper, the CT process was re-formulated in a theory which is based on nuclear tunneling and used as a description for the thermal ionization of deep impurities.…”

Section: Iii4 Franck-condon Principlementioning

confidence: 90%

Identification of oxide defects in semiconductor devices: A systematic approach linking DFT to rate equations and experimental evidence

Goes

Wimmer

El-Sayed

et al. 2018

Microelectronics Reliability

121

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It is well-established that oxide defects adversely affect functionality and reliability of a wide range of microelectronic devices. In semiconductor-insulator systems, insulator defects can capture or emit charge carriers from/to the semiconductor. These defects feature several stable configurations, which may have profound implications for the rates of the charge capture and emission processes. Recently, these complex capture/emission events have been investigated experimentally in considerable detail in Si/SiO2 devices, but their theoretical understanding still remains vague. In this paper we discuss in detail how the capture/emission processes can be simulated using the theoretical methods developed for calculating rates of charge transfer reactions between molecules and in electro-chemistry. By employing this theoretical framework we link the atomistic defect configurations to known trapping model parameters (e.g. trap levels) as well as measured capture/emission times in Si/SiO2 devices. Using density functional theory (DFT) calculations, we investigate possible atomistic configurations for various defects in amorphous (a)-SiO2 implicated in being involved in the degradation of microelectronic devices. These include the oxygen vacancy and hydrogen bridge as well as the recently proposed hydroxyl E center. In order to capture the effects of statistical defect-to-defect variations that are inevitably present in amorphous insulators, we analyze a large ensemble of defects both experimentally and theoretically. This large-scale investigation allows us to prioritize the candidates from our defect list based on their trap parameter distributions. For example, we can rule out the E center as a possible candidate. In addition, we establish realistic ranges for the trap parameters, which are useful for model calibration and increase the credibility of simulation results by avoiding artificial solutions. Furthermore, we address the effect of nuclear tunneling, which is involved according to the theory of charge transfer reactions. Based on our DFT results, we demonstrate the impact of nuclear tunneling on the capture/emission process, including their temperature and field dependence, and also give estimates for this effect in Si/SiO2 devices.

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Section: Iii4 Franck-condon Principlementioning

confidence: 90%

Identification of oxide defects in semiconductor devices: A systematic approach linking DFT to rate equations and experimental evidence

Goes

Wimmer

El-Sayed

et al. 2018

Microelectronics Reliability

121

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“…Note also the appearance of the extensive cycle of experimental results [7][8][9][10] (see also references in Ref. 10) regarding the ionization of deep centers in semiconductors (AlGaAs, AlGaSb, Ge) in THz electric fields ͑ = 3.4-200 THz͒.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Time-dependent electron tunneling through time-dependent tunnel barriers

Gribnikov

Haddad

2004

Journal of Applied Physics

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A plane electron wave incident on a tunnel-transparent potential barrier formed by the potential V͑x , t͒ = V 0 ͑x͒ + V 1 ͑x͒cos t generates, in addition to the usual stationary transmitted and reflected stationary waves, also "transmitted" and "reflected" electron waves oscillating with the same frequency. The transmitted oscillating wave can serve as the basis for transit-time microwave generators oscillating in the terahertz range. (Such oscillators are ballistic analogs of the tunnel-emission transit-time diode oscillators suggested almost half a century ago.) In the special case of a rectangular potential barrier, we describe the dependence of a small transmitted oscillating wave amplitude on the frequency and the value of V 1 ͑x͒. We consider two forms of V 1 ͑x͒: (1) homogeneous oscillation of the height of the rectangular barrier and (2) V 1 ͑x͒ = a␦͑x − x 1 ͒ [where ␦͑x͒ is the Dirac delta function and 0 Ͻ x 1 Ͻ w; w is the barrier thickness]. For sufficiently high frequencies determined by the time for tunneling, a much higher emission of the transmitted oscillating wave takes place in comparison with the results of quasistatic calculations.

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“…were phenomenologically introduced to reproduce the observed temperature dependence [10,42] justified by the importance of NMP transitions. However, ensuing relations were not rigorously derived from a microscopic theory [45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55].…”

Section: Defect Characterization (A) Time-dependent Defect Spectroscopymentioning

confidence: 99%

Role of hydrogen in volatile behaviour of defects in SiO ₂ -based electronic devices

et al. 2016

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Charge capture and emission by point defects in gate oxides of metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) strongly affect reliability and performance of electronic devices. Recent advances in experimental techniques used for probing defect properties have led to new insights into their characteristics. In particular, these experimental data show a repeated dis- and reappearance (the so-called volatility) of the defect-related signals. We use multiscale modelling to explain the charge capture and emission as well as defect volatility in amorphous SiO2 gate dielectrics. We first briefly discuss the recent experimental results and use a multiphonon charge capture model to describe the charge-trapping behaviour of defects in silicon-based MOSFETs. We then link this model to ab initio calculations that investigate the three most promising defect candidates. Statistical distributions of defect characteristics obtained from ab initio calculations in amorphous SiO2 are compared with the experimentally measured statistical properties of charge traps. This allows us to suggest an atomistic mechanism to explain the experimentally observed volatile behaviour of defects. We conclude that the hydroxyl-E′ centre is a promising candidate to explain all the observed features, including defect volatility.

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Tunneling ionization of deep centers in high-frequency electric fields

Cited by 11 publications

References 16 publications

Identification of oxide defects in semiconductor devices: A systematic approach linking DFT to rate equations and experimental evidence

Identification of oxide defects in semiconductor devices: A systematic approach linking DFT to rate equations and experimental evidence

Time-dependent electron tunneling through time-dependent tunnel barriers

Role of hydrogen in volatile behaviour of defects in SiO ₂ -based electronic devices

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Tunneling ionization of deep centers in high-frequency electric fields

Cited by 11 publications

References 16 publications

Identification of oxide defects in semiconductor devices: A systematic approach linking DFT to rate equations and experimental evidence

Identification of oxide defects in semiconductor devices: A systematic approach linking DFT to rate equations and experimental evidence

Time-dependent electron tunneling through time-dependent tunnel barriers

Role of hydrogen in volatile behaviour of defects in SiO 2 -based electronic devices

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Product

Resources

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Role of hydrogen in volatile behaviour of defects in SiO ₂ -based electronic devices