TRANSIENT SCANNING ELECTRON BEAM ANNEALING METHODS USED TO STUDY DIFFUSION AND DEFECTS IN IMPLANTED SILICON.

Rapid thermal annealing of arsenic and boron difluoride implants, such as those used for source/drain regions in CMOS, has been carried out using a scanning electron beam annealer, as part of a study of transient diffusion effects. Three types of e-beam anneal have been performed, with peak temperatures in the range 900 -1200 degree C; the normal isothermal e-beam anneals, together with sub-second fast anneals and 'dual-pulse' anneals, in which the sample undergoes an isothermal pre-anneal followed by rapid heating to the required anneal temperature is less than 0. 5s. The diffusion occuring during these anneal cycles has been modelled using SPS-1D, an implant and diffusion modelling program developed by one of the authors. This has been modified to incorporate simulated temperature vs. time cycles for the anneals. Results are presented applying the usual equilibrium clustering model, a transient point-defect enhancement to the diffusivity proposed recently by Fair and a new dynamic clustering model for arsenic. Good agreement with SIMS measurements is obtained using the dynamic clustering model, without recourse to a transient defect model.

The morphology of decorated amyloid fibers is controlled by the conformation and position of the displayed protein.

Self-assembled structures capable of mediating electron transfer are an attractive scientific and technological goal. Therefore, systematic variants of SH3-Cytochrome b(562) fusion proteins were designed to make amyloid fibers displaying heme-b(562) electron transfer complexes. TEM and AFM data show that fiber morphology responds systematically to placement of b(562) within the fusion proteins. UV-vis spectroscopy shows that, for the fusion proteins under test, only half the fiber-borne b(562) binds heme with high affinity. Cofactor binding also improves the AFM imaging properties and changes the fiber morphology through changes in cytochrome conformation. Systematic observations and measurements of fiber geometry suggest that longitudinal registry of subfilaments within the fiber, mediated by the interaction and conformation of the displayed proteins and their interaction with surfaces, gives rise to the observed morphologies, including defects and kinks. Of most interest is the role of small molecule modulation of fiber structure and mechanical stability. A minimum complexity model is proposed to capture and explain the fiber morphology in the light of these results. Understanding the complex interplay between these factors will enable a fiber design that supports longitudinal electron transfer.

Conduction bottleneck in silicon nanochain single electron transistors operating at room temperature

Single electron transistors are fabricated on single Si nanochains, synthesised by thermal evaporation of SiO solid sources. The nanochains consist of one-dimensional arrays of ~10nm Si nanocrystals, separated by SiO 2 regions. At 300 K, strong Coulomb staircases are seen in the drain-source current-voltage (I ds-V ds) characteristics, and single-electron oscillations are seen in the drain-source current-gate voltage (I ds-V ds) characteristics. From 300-20 K, a large increase in the Coulomb blockade region is observed. The characteristics are explained using singleelectron Monte Carlo simulation, where an inhomogeneous multiple tunnel junction represents a nanochain. Any reduction in capacitance at a nanocrystal well within the nanochain creates a conduction " bottleneck", suppressing current at low voltage and improving the Coulomb staircase. The single-electron charging energy at such an island can be very high, ~20k BT at 300 K. © 2012 The Japan Society of Applied Physics.

Hot electron field emission via individually transistor-ballasted carbon nanotube arrays.

We present electronically controlled field emission characteristics of arrays of individually ballasted carbon nanotubes synthesized by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition on silicon-on-insulator substrates. By adjusting the source-drain potential we have demonstrated the ability to controllable limit the emission current density by more than 1 order of magnitude. Dynamic control over both the turn-on electric field and field enhancement factor have been noted. A hot electron model is presented. The ballasted nanotubes are populated with hot electrons due to the highly crystalline Si channel and the high local electric field at the nanotube base. This positively shifts the Fermi level and results in a broad energy distribution about this mean, compared to the narrow spread, lower energy thermalized electron population in standard metallic emitters. The proposed vertically aligned carbon nanotube field-emitting electron source offers a viable platform for X-ray emitters and displays applications that require accurate and highly stable control over the emission characteristics.

Temperature dependent electron transport in amorphous oxide semiconductor thin film transistors

A temperature-dependent mobility model in amorphous oxide semiconductor (AOS) thin film transistors (TFTs) extracted from measurements of source-drain terminal currents at different gate voltages and temperatures is presented. At low gate voltages, trap-limited conduction prevails for a broad range of temperatures, whereas variable range hopping becomes dominant at lower temperatures. At high gate voltages and for all temperatures, percolation conduction comes into the picture. In all cases, the temperature-dependent mobility model obeys a universal power law as a function of gate voltage. © 2011 IEEE.