STRUCTURAL AND ELECTRONIC PROPERTIES OF NANOCRYSTALLINE SILICON - SILICON DIOXIDE SUPERLATTICES

摘要

Since the beginning of semiconductor industry, lithography is known to be the most critical and the most expensive step in VLSI fabrication. The strong interest to maskless fabrication of functional semiconductor nanostructures is due to possibility to avoid complexity and limitations of the photolithographic procedure. We review the most recent approach in fabrication of layered nanostructures where Si nanocrystals are separated by a thin, tunnel-transparent layer of SiO_2. These structures, named nanocrystalline Si superlattices, exhibit many interesting properties, specifically sequential resonant carrier tunneling. The proposed application of nanocrystalline Si superlattices in memory devices is discussed.