Tunneling and Resonant Tunneling Effects in the Metal-Ultrathin Oxide-(n+)Silicon Structures

In this work current-voltage characteristics of the experimental metal-utrathin SiO 2 /highly doped n-type silicon structures are presented and discussed based on theoretical simulations. The measured I-V characteristics exhibit sharp current steps, peaks and hysteresis which are related to tunneling or resonant tunneling through the ultrathin oxide and/or semiconductor substrate energy gap.