Nanoscale electrical characterization of trap-assisted quasibreakdown fluctuations in SiO2
Abstract
Conductive atomic force microscopy has been used to electrically image quasibreakdown sites in thin, native SiO2 films. Local current-voltage spectroscopy reveals, at individual sites, fluctuations in the breakdown current between well-defined conductivity states. Theoretical modeling has been performed to show that conduction through the film is governed by local trap-assisted tunneling, with typically one or two charge traps contributing to conduction through a quasibreakdown site. Our study provides a semiquantitative analysis to characterize the effective trap states that give rise to local random telegraph signals in the oxide film.
- Publication:
-
Applied Physics Letters
- Pub Date:
- April 2004
- DOI:
- 10.1063/1.1712033
- Bibcode:
- 2004ApPhL..84.3142P
- Keywords:
-
- 77.22.Jp;
- 77.55.+f;
- 77.84.Bw;
- 73.61.Ng;
- 68.37.Ps;
- Dielectric breakdown and space-charge effects;
- Dielectric thin films;
- Elements oxides nitrides borides carbides chalcogenides etc.;
- Insulators;
- Atomic force microscopy