Electron transport characteristics of silicon nanowires by metal-assisted chemical etching

Journal Article · Sat Mar 15 04:00:00 EDT 2014 · AIP Advances

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4866578· OSTI ID:22250998

Qi, Yangyang; Wang, Zhen; Zhang, Mingliang; Wang, Xiaodong; Ji, An; Yang, Fuhua ^[1]

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1. Engineering Research Center for Semiconductor Integrated Technology, Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100083 (China)

The electron transport characteristics of silicon nanowires (SiNWs) fabricated by metal-assisted chemical etching with different doping concentrations were studied. By increasing the doping concentration of the starting Si wafer, the resulting SiNWs were prone to have a rough surface, which had important effects on the contact and the electron transport. A metal-semiconductor-metal model and a thermionic field emission theory were used to analyse the current-voltage (I-V) characteristics. Asymmetric, rectifying and symmetric I-V curves were obtained. The diversity of the I-V curves originated from the different barrier heights at the two sides of the SiNWs. For heavily doped SiNWs, the critical voltage was one order of magnitude larger than that of the lightly doped, and the resistance obtained by differentiating the I-V curves at large bias was also higher. These were attributed to the lower electron tunnelling possibility and higher contact barrier, due to the rough surface and the reduced doping concentration during the etching process.

• OSTI ID: 22250998
• Journal Information: AIP Advances, Journal Name: AIP Advances Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 4; ISSN AAIDBI; ISSN 2158-3226
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
ELECTRIC POTENTIAL
ETCHING
FIELD EMISSION
QUANTUM WIRES
SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS
SILICON
TUNNEL EFFECT