Determination of hole effective mass in SiO2 and SiC conduction band offset using Fowler-Nordheim tunneling characteristics across metal-oxide-semiconductor structures after applying oxide field corrections

Fowler-Nordheim electron and hole tunneling characteristics across 4H-SiC MOS diodes are studied. Their slope constants are used to determine the hole effective mass in the thermal SiO2 and the 4H-SiC conduction band offset. The hole effective mass in the SiO2 is found to be 0.58 m, where m is the free electron mass. The 4H-SiC conduction band offset is found to be 2.78 eV. The average oxide fields used in the carrier tunneling characteristics are formulated. It is found that anode and cathode field corrections by the flatband voltage are critical in the evaluation of the above tunneling parameters. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi :10.1063/1.3587185]