Identification of an interface defect generated by hot electrons in SiO2

Abstract

Hot electrons in the gate dielectric (SiO₂) of field effect transistors create defects at the Si/SiO₂ interface. Using electrically detected magnetic resonance, we have identified a major component of these interface defects as the well‐known P_b0 center. We show that the generation rate of the P_b0 centers increases when the oxide field is sufficient to cause electron heating, thus establishing the correlation with hot‐electron generated interface states. Hot‐electron induced defect generation is shown to be fundamentally different from another interface degradation mechanism, electron‐hole recombination near the interface, which produces interface defects but does not produce P_b0 centers.