Localized charge injection in SiO2 films containing silicon nanocrystals

An atomic-force microscope (AFM) is used to locally inject, detect, and quantify the amount and location of charge in SiO2 films containing Si nanocrystals (size ∼2--6 nm). By comparison with control samples, charge trapping is shown to be due to nanocrystals and not ion-implantation-induced defects in samples containing ion-beam-synthesized Si nanocrystals. Using an electrostatic model and AFM images of charge we have estimated the amount of charge injected in a typical experiment to be a few hundred electrons and the discharge rate to be ∼35±15 e/min. Copyright 2001 American Institute of Physics