Exciton transport in SiO2 as a possible cause of surface-state generation in MOS structures

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Abstract
Positive charge and surface states are found to accumulate at the Si‐SiO2 interface in MOS structures which are illuminated by vacuum ultraviolet photons (≳9 eV) with a negative bias applied to the metal electrode. A series of experiments seems to rule out the obvious explanations for this effect—photon and hot‐electron processes. We suggest the possibility that excitons, generated by photon absorption in the SiO2, diffuse to the Si‐SiO2 interface where they are separated into a free electron absorbed into the silicon substrate and a hole trapped at the interface.