Electrical behaviour of MIS devices based on Si nanoclusters embedded in SiOxNy and SiO2 films

6International audienceWe examined and compared the electrical properties of silica (SiO2) and silicon oxynitride (SiOxNy) layers embedding silicon nanoclusters (Sinc) integrated in Metal-Insulator-Semiconductor devices. The technique used for the deposition of such layers is the reactive magnetron sputtering of a pure SiO2 target under a mixture of hydrogen/argon plasma in which nitrogen is incorporated in the case of SiOxNy layer. Al/SiOxNy-Sinc/p-Si and Al/SiO2-Sinc/p-Si devices were fabricated and electrically characterized. Results showed a high rectification ratio (>104) for the SiOxNy based device and a resistive behaviour when nitrogen was not incorporating (SiO2 based device). For rectifier devices, the ideality factor depends on the SiOxNy layer thickness. The conduction mechanisms of both MIS diode structures were studied by analysing thermal and bias dependences of the carriers transport in relation with the nitrogen content