MECHANISM OF LEAKAGE CURRENT THROUGH THE NANOSCALE SIO2 LAYER

We clarify the mechanism of leakage current through the nanoscale ultr athin silicon dioxide (SiO2) layer in a metal-insulator-semiconductor structure based on the multiple scattering theory when technologically important phosphorus doped polycrystalline silicon is adopted as the gate electrode. We also derive an analytic expression for the direct t unneling current, and show that its measurement presents an excellent opportunity to determine the effective mass of an electron in the SiO2 .