The Physics of Interface Interactions Related to Reliability of Future Electronic Devices.

摘要

Photoemission and thermionic emission results show that the Si-SiO2energy barrier can be reduced from 4.2eV to about 2.5eV by a monolayer coverage of sodium. Scanning Internal Photoemission maps were made of the SiO2interface which was 'stained'by a small amount of sodium. Images of the contract barrier were made which show microscopic imperfections such as phosphorus precipitates on the interface as well as microscratches. In the area of transition metal oxides,progress was made in understanding the mechanism of switching found in thin films of Nb2O5. In another area,involving structural instabilities of thin glass films,it was identified that a small phosphorus impurity is able to recrystallize SiO2at the relatively low temperature of 525C. Phosphorus is commonly used to dope the SiO2used in MOS transistors. Also, a destructive interface reaction between SiO2and vanadium was found. (Modified author abstract)