Fowler-Nordheim tunnelling and electrically stressed breakdown of 3-mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane self-assembled monolayers

摘要

We report the confirmed occurrence of Fowler-Nordheim (FN) electron tunnelling in p~+ Si (SiO_x)/self-assembled monolayers of 3-mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane (MPTMS)/Au structures. The statistically favoured values of the effective mass and energy barrier heights for electrons are determined to be in the ranges 0.15-0.18 m_e and 1.3-1.5 eV, respectively. The electrically stressed breakdown of the monolayers is observed to take place at very high fields, i.e. 16-50 MV cm~(-1). Prior to the breakdown, switching of FN currents between different conduction states was observed; this is found to be related to a change in the electrical properties of monolayers owing to the creation of field-induced defects.