Evidence of room temperature charging effects of silicon nanocrystals inside metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitors using feedback charge measurements

In this paper we present a study of room temperature quasi-static capacitance-voltage C-V and current-voltage Q/t-V characteristics of metal-oxide-semiconductor (M-OS) capacitors containing silicon nanocrystals (nc-Si). We use the feedback charge method to simultaneously measure C-V and Q/t-V While no specific feature is observed on C-V curves, on Q/t-V curves we can clearly identify an excess current that can be assigned to the charging effects related to the existence of the nc-Si. The position of this peak current and the evaluated density of charge stored in the nc-Si are monitored by the swiftness of measurement. A phenomenological analysis is given and a possible implication of crosstalk between the nc-Si is proposed. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.