Electric-field-assisted formation of an interfacial double-donor molecule in silicon nano-transistors

Control of coupling of dopant atoms in silicon nanostructures is a fundamental challenge for dopant-based applications. However, it is difficult to find systems of only a few dopants that can be directly addressed and, therefore, experimental demonstration has not yet been obtained. In this work, we...

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Main Authors:	Samanta, Arup, Moraru, Daniel, Mizuno, Takeshi, Tabe, Michiharu
Format:	Online
Language:	English
Published:	Nature Publishing Group 2015
Online Access:	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4663623/

id	pubmed-4663623
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	pubmed-46636232015-12-03 Electric-field-assisted formation of an interfacial double-donor molecule in silicon nano-transistors Samanta, Arup Moraru, Daniel Mizuno, Takeshi Tabe, Michiharu Article Control of coupling of dopant atoms in silicon nanostructures is a fundamental challenge for dopant-based applications. However, it is difficult to find systems of only a few dopants that can be directly addressed and, therefore, experimental demonstration has not yet been obtained. In this work, we identify pairs of donor atoms in the nano-channel of a silicon field-effect transistor and demonstrate merging of the donor-induced potential wells at the interface by applying vertical electric field. This system can be described as an interfacial double-donor molecule. Single-electron tunneling current is used to probe the modification of the potential well. When merging occurs at the interface, the gate capacitance of the potential well suddenly increases, leading to an abrupt shift of the tunneling current peak to lower gate voltages. This is due to the decrease of the system’s charging energy, as confirmed by Coulomb blockade simulations. These results represent the first experimental observation of electric-field-assisted formation of an interfacial double-donor molecule, opening a pathway for designing functional devices using multiple coupled dopant atoms. Nature Publishing Group 2015-11-30 /pmc/articles/PMC4663623/ /pubmed/26616434 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep17377 Text en Copyright © 2015, Macmillan Publishers Limited http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
repository_type	Open Access Journal
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building	NCBI PubMed
collection	Online Access
language	English
format	Online
author	Samanta, Arup Moraru, Daniel Mizuno, Takeshi Tabe, Michiharu
spellingShingle	Samanta, Arup Moraru, Daniel Mizuno, Takeshi Tabe, Michiharu Electric-field-assisted formation of an interfacial double-donor molecule in silicon nano-transistors
author_facet	Samanta, Arup Moraru, Daniel Mizuno, Takeshi Tabe, Michiharu
author_sort	Samanta, Arup
title	Electric-field-assisted formation of an interfacial double-donor molecule in silicon nano-transistors
title_short	Electric-field-assisted formation of an interfacial double-donor molecule in silicon nano-transistors
title_full	Electric-field-assisted formation of an interfacial double-donor molecule in silicon nano-transistors
title_fullStr	Electric-field-assisted formation of an interfacial double-donor molecule in silicon nano-transistors
title_full_unstemmed	Electric-field-assisted formation of an interfacial double-donor molecule in silicon nano-transistors
title_sort	electric-field-assisted formation of an interfacial double-donor molecule in silicon nano-transistors
description	Control of coupling of dopant atoms in silicon nanostructures is a fundamental challenge for dopant-based applications. However, it is difficult to find systems of only a few dopants that can be directly addressed and, therefore, experimental demonstration has not yet been obtained. In this work, we identify pairs of donor atoms in the nano-channel of a silicon field-effect transistor and demonstrate merging of the donor-induced potential wells at the interface by applying vertical electric field. This system can be described as an interfacial double-donor molecule. Single-electron tunneling current is used to probe the modification of the potential well. When merging occurs at the interface, the gate capacitance of the potential well suddenly increases, leading to an abrupt shift of the tunneling current peak to lower gate voltages. This is due to the decrease of the system’s charging energy, as confirmed by Coulomb blockade simulations. These results represent the first experimental observation of electric-field-assisted formation of an interfacial double-donor molecule, opening a pathway for designing functional devices using multiple coupled dopant atoms.
publisher	Nature Publishing Group
publishDate	2015
url	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4663623/
_version_	1613507591469531136

Electric-field-assisted formation of an interfacial double-donor molecule in silicon nano-transistors

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