Characterization of carrier transport properties in strained crystalline Si wall-like structures as a function of scaling into the quasi-quantum regime

Abstract

We report the transport characteristics of both electrons and holes through narrow constricted crystalline Si "wall-like" long-channels that were surrounded by a thermally grown SiO2 layer. Importantly, as a result of the existence of fixed oxide charges in the thermally grown SiO2 layer and the Si/SiO2 interface, the effective Si cross-sectional wall widths were considerably narrower than the actual physical widths, due the formation of depletion regions from both sides. These nanostructures were configured into a metal-semiconductor-metal device configuration that was isolated from the substrate region. Dark currents, dc-photo-response, and carrier "time-of-flight" response measurements using a mode-locked femtosecond laser, were used in the study. In the narrowest wall devices, a considerable increase in conductivity was observed as a result of higher carrier mobilities due to lateral constriction and strain. The strain effects, which include the reversal splitting of light- and heavy- hole bands as well as the decrease of conduction-band effective mass by reduced Si bandgap energy, are formulated in our microscopic model for explaining the experimentally observed enhancements in both conduction- and valence-band mobilities with reduced Si wall thickness. The role of the biaxial strain buffing depth is elucidated and the quasi-quantum effect for the saturation hole mobility at small wall thickness is also found and explained. Specifically, the enhancements of the valence-band and conduction-band mobilities are found to be associated with different aspects of theoretical model.