How Do Electronic Carriers Cross Si-Bound Alkyl Monolayers?

Adi Salomon, Till Boecking, Calvin K. Chan, Fabrice Amy, Olga Girshevitz, David Cahen, Antoine Kahn
2005 Physical Review Letters  
Electron transport through Si-C bound alkyl chains, sandwiched between n-Si and Hg, is characterized by two distinct types of barriers, each dominating in a different voltage range. At low voltage, current depends strongly on temperature but not on molecular length, suggesting transport by thermionic emission over a barrier in the Si. At higher voltage, the current decreases exponentially with molecular length, suggesting tunneling through the molecules. The tunnel barrier is estimated, from
more » ... nsport and photoemission data, to be ~1.5 eV with a 0.25me effective mass.
doi:10.1103/physrevlett.95.266807 pmid:16486388 fatcat:6zd2cetwqrb75ggbzhvxpwzzwi