Water assisted gate induced temporal surface charge distribution probed by electrostatic force microscopy

In this paper, we present a quantitative method to measure charge density on dielectric layers using electrostatic force microscopy. As opposed to previous reports, our method, which is based on force curve measurements, does not require preliminary knowledge of the tip-sample capacitance and its derivatives. Using this approach, we have been able to quantify lateral and temporal SiO2 surface charge distribution and have unveiled a gate-induced charge redistribution mechanism which takes place in the vicinity of grounded electrodes. We argue that this mechanism constitutes a dominant factor in the hysteresis phenomenon, which is frequently observed in the transfer characteristics of nano-scale devices. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4761981]