Determination of the effective mass of ballistic electrons in thin siliconoxides films using tunneling current oscillations

A new, simple and accurate method is proposed for the determination of the effective electron mass in thin insulator films from the current-voltage ch aracteristics in fields of the ballistic electron emission regime. The effe ctive mass of electrons was evaluated for oxide films of metal-oxide-semico nductor structures. The effective ballistic electron mass near the conducti on band edge of silicon dioxide for different structures changes from 0.52 to 0.84m(o) and the experimental data show that the value of the effective mass of the ballistic electron can be treated as a constant while the gate voltage changes at least within a certain voltage range. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.