Memory effects related to deep levels in metal–oxide–semiconductor structure with nanocrystalline Si

$\mathrm{Nanocrystalline}\mathrm{(nc)}$ -Si was grown on ${\mathrm{SiO}}_2$ by rapid thermal chemical vapor deposition. The tunneling oxide layer of a thickness of 4 nm was formed on p-type Si(100) by rapid thermal oxidation at 1050 °C for 30 s. Metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) structures were fabricated and capacitance–voltage characterization was carried out to study the memory effects of the $\mathrm{nc-}\mathrm{Si}$ embedded in the MOS structure. We found the memory effect to be dominantly related to hydrogen-related traps, in addition to being influenced by the three-dimensional quantum confinement and Coulomb charge effects. Deep level transient spectroscopy reveal that the activation energies of the hydrogen-related traps are $E_v\text{+0.29\hspace{0.17em}}\mathrm{eV}$ (H1) and $E_v\text{+0.42\hspace{0.17em}}\mathrm{eV}$ (H2), and the capture cross sections are ${\text{4.70×10}}^{\text{−16}}\hspace{0.17em}{\mathrm{cm}}^2$ and ${\text{1.44×10}}^{\text{−15}}\hspace{0.17em}{\mathrm{cm}}^2,$ respectively. The presence of $\mathrm{Si}–\mathrm{H}$ and $\mathrm{Si}–{\mathrm{H}}_2$ bonds was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy.