Ultrathin nitride layers grown by molecular-beam epitaxy and their effects on interface states in silicon metal-insulator-semiconductor field-effect transistors

In this experiment the ultrahigh vacuum environment of a molecular-beam epitaxy reactor equipped with ammonia was used to thermally nitride silicon. The resulting thin silicon nitride films were incorporated as gate insulators of metal-insulator-semiconductor field-effect transistors. The fabrication of field-effect transistors enabled very accurate interface state characterization of the silicon-silicon nitride interface by the charge pumping technique. The ammonia nitridation of silicon was also investigated as a surface passivation technique for scanning probe microscope (both conductive tip atomic force microscope and scanning tunneling microscope) lithography techniques.