Inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy on MOS structures with very thin oxide films

Inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy at 4.2 K was used to investigate the defect structure of MOS capacitors with very thin SiO2 films. Samples were degeneratelyP-andB-doped Si substrates, oxidized in O2 at 600°C and provided with evaporated Pb, Au, In, Al or Mg electrodes. The observed peaks in the second derivative of theI-U characteristic were assigned to the excitation of phonons and of vibrational modes of the dopants and impurities. The results were found to correlate with infrared data. In addition, a distinct effect of Si/SiO2 interface states on the characteristic was found.