Charging effect of aluminum nitride thin films containing Al nanocrystals

In this work, the Al-rich AIN thin film is deposited on Si substrate by radio frequency (RF) sputtering to form a metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) structure. Al nanocrystals (nc-Al) are formed and embedded in the AIN thin film. Charge trapping/detrapping in the nc-Al leads to a shift in the flat-band voltage (VFB) of the MIS structure. The charge storage ability of the AIN thin films containing Al nanocrystals provides the possibility of memory applications. On the other hand, charge trapping in nc-Al reduces the current conduction because of the breaking of some tunneling paths due to Coulomb blockade effect and the current conduction evolves with a trend towards one-dimensional transport.