Direct measurement of quantum confinement effects at metal to quantum-well nanocontacts

Model metal-semiconductor nanostructure Schottky nanocontacts were made on cleaved heterostructures containing GaAs quantum wells (QWs) of varying width and were locally probed by ballistic electron emission microscopy. The local Schottky barrier was found to increase by approximately 0.140 eV as the QW width was systematically decreased from 15 to 1 nm, due mostly to a large (approximately 0.200 eV) quantum-confinement increase to the QW conduction band. The measured barrier increase over the full 1 to 15 nm QW range was quantitatively explained when local "interface pinning" and image force lowering effects are also considered.