Transport spectroscopy through dopant atom array in silicon junctionless nanowire transistors**Project supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2016YFA0200503) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 61327813).

Abstract

We demonstrate electron transport spectroscopy through a dopant atom array in n-doped silicon junctionless nanowire transistors within a temperature range from 6 K to 250 K. Several current steps are observed at the initial stage of the transfer curves below 75 K, which result from the electron transport from Hubbard bands to one-dimensional conduction band. The current-off voltages in the transfer curves have a strikingly positive shift below 20 K and a negative shift above 20 K due to the electrostatic screening induced by the ionized dopant atoms. There exists the minimum electron mobility at a critical temperature of 20 K, resulting from the interplay between thermal activation and impurity scattering. Furthermore, electron transport behaviors change from hopping conductance to thermal activation conductance at the temperature of 30 K.