Depth Profiling of Charging Effect of Si Nanocrystals Embedded in SiO2: A Study of Charge Diffusion among Si Nanocrystals

Liu, Yang, Chen, Tu Pei, Ng, C. Y., Ding, L., Zhang, Sam, Fu, Yong Qing and Fung, Steve (2006) Depth Profiling of Charging Effect of Si Nanocrystals Embedded in SiO2: A Study of Charge Diffusion among Si Nanocrystals. The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 110 (33). pp. 16499-16502. ISSN 1520-6106

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Abstract

Si nanocrystal (nc-Si) embedded in SiO2 thin film is synthesized with low-energy Si ion implantation. Depth profiling of the charging effect of the nc-Si is determined from X-ray photoemission measurement. It is observed that there is a strong correlation between the depth profile of the charging effect and the nc-Si depth distribution. The charging effect is found to decrease with the increase of nc-Si concentration and to vanish when a densely stacked nanocrystal layer is formed. The phenomenon is attributed to the charge diffusion among the nanocrystals. The charge diffusion in the nanocrystal layer may have an important implication for nanocrystal flash memory. When such a layer is used as the charge-storage layer in the memory cells, the stored charges could be lost due to the rapid charge diffusion among the nc-Si if a single defect exists in the tunneling oxide, causing a reliability problem in data retention.

Item Type:	Article
Subjects:	F200 Materials Science
Department:	Faculties > Engineering and Environment > Mathematics, Physics and Electrical Engineering
Depositing User:	Becky Skoyles
Date Deposited:	27 Mar 2015 09:27
Last Modified:	12 Oct 2019 19:06
URI:	http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/21868

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