Dissipation of Contact Electrified Electrons on Dielectric Thin films with Silicon Substrate

Abstract

We studied microscopic contact electrification on three different kinds of dielectric thin films with the same silicon substrate, i.e., SiO 2 /Si, Si 3 N 4 /SiO 2 /Si (NOS) and SiO 2 /Si 3 N 4 /SiO 2 /Si, using a modified atomic force micro- scope (AFM). From the results, we clarified that reproducible and controllable contact electrification is possible on each sample. From the time evolution of the peak values and full widths at half-maximum (FWHMs) of electrostatic force due to contact-electrified electrons, we found that the stable-unstable phase transition occurs only on SiO 2 /Si and SiO 2 /Si 3 N 4 /SiO 2 /Si thin films with the SiO 2 surface.