High ON/OFF ratio and multimode transport in silicon nanochains field effect transistors

Abstract

We have observed multimode transport and high ON/OFF ratio in silicon nanochain devices. Silicon nanochains grown by thermal evaporation of SiO solid sources consisted of chains of silicon nanocrystals ∼10 nm in diameter, separated by SiO2 regions. The devices were fabricated using electron beam lithography on SiO2 thermally grown on silicon substrate. These devices exhibited high ON/OFF current ratio up to 104. The inverse subthreshold slope as small as ∼500 mV/decade was observed in these devices. Therefore, we believe silicon nanochains hold great potential to be used in field effect transistors.