Self-assembled nanowire array capacitors: capacitance and interface state profile

Direct characterization of the capacitance and interface states is very important for understanding the electronic properties of a nanowire transistor. However, the capacitance of a single nanowire is too small to precisely measure. In this work we have fabricated metal–oxide–semiconductor capacitors based on a large array of self-assembled Si nanowires. The capacitance and conductance of the nanowire array capacitors are directly measured and the interface state profile is determined by using the conductance method. We demonstrate that the nanowire array capacitor is an effective platform for studying the electronic properties of nanoscale interfaces. This approach provides a useful and efficient metrology for the study of the physics and device properties of nanoscale metal–oxide–semiconductor structures.

Qiliang Li, Hao D Xiong, Xuelei Liang, Xiaoxiao Zhu, Diefeng Gu, Dimitris E Ioannou, Helmut Baumgart and Curt A Richter

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