Energy Offset Between Silicon Quantum Structures by Embedding in SiO2 vs. Si3N4 as Doping Alternative (talk)

Dirk Koenig*, Daniel Hiller, Sebastian Gutsch, Margit Zacharias

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to conferenceAbstractpeer-review

Abstract

Talk P.7.3
Energy Offset Between Silicon Quantum Structures by Embedding in SiO2 vs. Si3N4 as Doping Alternative

Authors: D. König* (a), D. Hiller (b), S. Gutsch (b), M. Zacharias (b)
Affiliations: (a) Integrated Material Design Centre (IMDC), University of NSW, Sydney, Australia; (b) Department of Microsytems Engineering (IMTEK), Laboratory of Nanotechnology, Albert Ludwigs University Freiburg, Germany
Ultrasmall silicon (Si) nanoelectronic devices require an energy shift of electronic states for n- and p-conductivity. Nanocrystal (NC) self-purification and out-diffusion in field effect transistors cause doping to fail. Even if dopants manage to enter SiNCs, their ionization energy increases tremendously over values known from bulk Si; no free charge carriers can be provided [1]. We show that silicon dioxide (SiO2) and silicon nitride (Si3N4) create energy offsets of electronic states in embedded Si quantum dots (QDs) in analogy to doping [2]. Hybrid density functional theory (h-DFT), interface charge transfer (ICT), and experimental verifications arrive at the same size of QDs below which the dielectric dominates their electronic properties. Large positive energy offsets of electronic states and an energy gap increase exist for Si QDs in Si3N4 versa SiO2. Using DFT results, the SiO2/QD interface coverage is estimated with nitrogen (N) to be 0.1 to 0.5 monolayers (ML) for samples annealed in N2 versus argon (Ar). The interface impact is described as nanoscopic field effect and propose the energy offset as robust and controllable alternative to impurity doping of Si nanostructures.
[1] D. König, S. Gutsch, H. Gnaser, et al., Sci. Rep. (Nature), Vol. 5, 09702 (2015), DOI: 10.1038/srep09702
[2] D. König, D. Hiller, S. Gutsch, M. Zacharias, Adv. Mater. Interfaces 1, 1400359 (2014)
Original languageEnglish
Publication statusPublished - 18 Sept 2015
Externally publishedYes

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