Photon-induced conduction modulation in SiO2 thin films embedded with Ge nanocrystals

L. Ding, T. P. Chen*, M. Yang, J. I. Wong, Y. Liu, S. F. Yu, Furong Zhu, M. C. Tan, S. Fung, C. H. Tung, A. D. Trigg

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

10 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The authors report the photon-induced conduction modulation in Si O2 thin films embedded with germanium nanocrystals (nc-Ge). The conduction of the oxide could be switched to a higher- or lower-conductance state by a ultraviolet (UV) illumination. The conduction modulation is caused by charging and discharging in the nc-Ge due to the UV illumination. If the charging process is dominant, the oxide conductance is reduced; however, if the discharging process is dominant, the oxide conductance is increased. As the conduction can be modulated by UV illumination, it could have potential applications in silicon-based optical memory devices.

Original languageEnglish
Article number103102
Number of pages3
JournalApplied Physics Letters
Volume90
Issue number10
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 5 Mar 2007

Scopus Subject Areas

  • Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)

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