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Role of interfaces on the direct tunneling and the inelastic tunneling behaviors through metal/alkylsilane/silicon junctions
Author(s) -
Aswal D. K.,
Petit C.,
Salace G.,
Guérin D.,
Lenfant S.,
Yakhmi J. V.,
Vuillaume D.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
physica status solidi (a)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.532
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1862-6319
pISSN - 1862-6300
DOI - 10.1002/pssa.200566116
Subject(s) - monolayer , quantum tunnelling , silicon , chemistry , molecule , self assembled monolayer , covalent bond , silanes , nanotechnology , materials science , silane , optoelectronics , organic chemistry
We studied the influence of the end group of the alkylsilane molecule used in Self Assembled Monolayer (SAM) in Silicon/SAM/Metal junctions. By Inelastic Electron Tunneling spectroscopy (IETS), we showed the formation of a covalent bond between the molecules and the gold electrode in the case of a thiol terminated alkylsilane. By electrical characterizations, we demonstrated that the thiol group at the interface avoids diffusion of gold into the molecule even for a 3 carbons chain. For this short molecule, we observed pure tunnel conduction with barrier height at the monolayer/Si and monolayer/Au interfaces found to be respectively 2.14 and 2.56 eV. These values were obtained using Simmons equation with an effective mass parameter m * = 0.16 m e ( m e = mass of the electron).This extends the demonstration of the excellent tunnel dielectric behavior of these organic monolayers down to 3 carbon atoms with a thiol/Au bond at the interface. (© 2006 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)