Determination of the hole effective mass in thin silicon dioxide film by means of an analysis of characteristics of a MOS tunnel emitter transistor

Abstract

The value of mh = 0.33 m0 has been experimentally obtained for hole effective mass in a tunnel-thin (2–3 nm) SiO2 film. The use of this value ensures the adequate modelling of a direct-tunnelling hole current in MOS devices. For the first time, in order to determine mh, the characteristics of a MOS tunnel emitter transistor have been mathematically processed, that allows for the precise estimation of the effective oxide thickness, as the electron effective mass in SiO2 is independently known from the literature. The formulae for simulation of currents in a tunnel MOS structure are listed along with the necessary parameter values.