Jens Eriksson

The influence of substrate morphology on thickness uniformity and unintentional doping of epitaxial graphene on SiC

A pivotal issue for the fabrication of electronic devices on epitaxial graphene on SiC is controlling the number of layers and reducing localized thickness inhomogeneities. Of equal importance is to understand what governs the unintentional doping of the graphene from the substrate. The influence of substrate surface topography on these two issues was studied by work function measurements and local surface potential mapping. The carrier concentration and the uniformity of epitaxial graphene samples grown under identical conditions and on substrates of nominally identical orientation were both found to depend strongly on the terrace width of the SiC substrate after growth.

Toward an ideal Schottky barrier on 3C-SiC

The electrical characteristics of Au/3C-SiC Schottky diodes were studied as a function of contact area. While the larger diodes were characterized by conventional current-voltage measurements, conductive atomic force microscopy was used to perform current-voltage measurements on diodes of contact radius down to 5 μm. The results show that the Schottky barrier height increases upon reducing the contact area, and for the smallest diodes the value approaches the ideal barrier height of the system. The results were correlated with defects in the 3C-SiC and an analytical expression was derived to describe the dependence of the barrier height on the defect density.

On the differing sensitivity to chemical gating of single and double layer epitaxial graphene explored using scanning Kelvin probe microscopy.

Using environmental scanning Kelvin probe microscopy, we show that the position of the Fermi level of single layer graphene is more sensitive to chemical gating than that of double layer graphene. We calculate that the difference in sensitivity to chemical gating is not entirely due to the difference in band structure of 1 and 2 layer graphene. The findings are important for gas sensing where the sensitivity of the electronic properties to gas adsorption is monitored and suggest that single layer graphene could make a more sensitive gas sensor than double layer graphene. We propose that the difference in surface potential between adsorbate-free single and double layer graphene, measured using scanning kelvin probe microscopy, can be used as a noninvasive method of estimating substrate-induced doping in epitaxial graphene.

Improved Ni/3C-SiC contacts by effective contact area and conductivity increases at the nanoscale

We report on the evolution of the electrical and structural properties of Ni/3C-SiC contacts during annealing in the temperature range of 600–950 °C. A structural analysis showed the formation of different nickel silicide phases upon annealing. A combination of transmission line model and conductive atomic force microscopy measurements demonstrated a correlation between the macroscale specific contact resistance and the nanoscale resistance, measured locally across the sample. These results further revealed that the structural evolution is accompanied by an increased uniformity of the local current distribution, indicating that an increase of the effective contact area contributes to the improvement of the contact properties.

Highly Stable Conjugated Polyelectrolytes for Water-Based Hybrid Mode Electrochemical Transistors

Hydrophobic, self-doped conjugated polyelectrolytes (CPEs) are introduced as highly stable active materials for organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs). The hydrophobicity of CPEs renders films very stable in aqueous solutions. The devices operate at gate voltages around zero and show no signs of degradation when operated for 104 cycles under ambient conditions. These properties make the produced OECTs ideal devices for applications in bioelectronics.

Silicon Carbide Field Effect Transistors for Detection of Ultra-Low Concentrations of Hazardous Volatile Organic Compounds

Gas sensitive silicon carbide field effect transistors with nanostructured Ir gate layers have been used for the first time for sensitive detection of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) at part per billion level for indoor air quality applications. Formaldehyde, naphthalene, and benzene have been used as typical VOCs in dry air and under 10% and 20% relative humidity. A single VOC was used at a time to study long-term stability, repeatability, temperature dependence, effect of relative humidity, sensitivity, response and recovery times of the sensors.

Progress in 3C-SiC growth and novel applications

Recent research efforts in growth of 3C-SiC are reviewed. Sublimation growth is addressed with an emphasis on the enhanced understanding of polytype stability in relation to growth conditions, such as supersaturation and Si/C ratio. It is shown that at low temperature/supersaturation spiral 6H-SiC growth is favored, which prepares the surface for 3C-SiC nucleation. Provided the supersaturation is high enough, 3C-SiC nucleates as two-dimensional islands on terraces of the homoepitaxial 6H-SiC. Effect of different substrate surface preparations is considered. Typical extended defects and their electrical activity is discussed. Finally, possible novel applications are outlined.

Monolayer graphene/SiC Schottky barrier diodes with improved barrier height uniformity as a sensing platform for the detection of heavy metals

A vertical diode structure comprising homogeneous monolayer epitaxial graphene on silicon carbide is fabricated by thermal decomposition of a Si-face 4H-SiC wafer in argon atmosphere. Current–voltage characteristics of the graphene/SiC Schottky junction were analyzed by applying the thermionic-emission theory. Extracted values of the Schottky barrier height and the ideality factor are found to be 0.4879 ± 0.013 eV and 1.01803 ± 0.0049, respectively. Deviations of these parameters from average values are smaller than those of previously observed literature data, thereby implying uniformity of the Schottky barrier height over the whole diode area, a stable rectifying behaviour and a good quality of ohmic palladium–graphene contacts. Keeping in mind the strong sensitivity of graphene to analytes we propose the possibility to use the graphene/SiC Schottky diode as a sensing platform for the recognition of toxic heavy metals. Using density functional theory (DFT) calculations we gain insight into the nature of the interaction of cadmium, mercury and lead with graphene as well as estimate the work function and the Schottky barrier height of the graphene/SiC structure before and after applying heavy metals to the sensing material. A shift of the I–V characteristics of the graphene/SiC-based sensor has been proposed as an indicator of presence of the heavy metals. Since the calculations suggested the strongest charge transfer between Pb and graphene, the proposed sensing platform was characterized by good selectivity towards lead atoms and slight interferences from cadmium and mercury. The dependence of the sensitivity parameters on the concentration of Cd, Hg and Pb is studied and discussed.

Exploring the gas sensing performance of catalytic metal/ metal oxide 4H-SiC field effect transistors

Gas sensitive metal/metal-oxide field effect transistors based on silicon carbide were used to study the sensor response to benzene (C6H6) at the low parts per billion (ppb) concentration range. A combination of iridium and tungsten trioxide was used to develop the sensing layer. High sensitivity to 10 ppb C6H6 was demonstrated during several repeated measurements at a constant temperature from 180 to 300 °C. The sensor performance were studied also as a function of the electrical operating point of the device, i.e., linear, onset of saturation, and saturation mode. Measurements performed in saturation mode gave a sensor response up to 52 % higher than those performed in linear mode.

On the Viability of Au/3C-SiC Schottky Barrier Diodes

The electrical characteristics of Au/3C-SiC Schottky diodes were studied and related to crystal defects. A structural analysis performed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), combined with a current mapping of the surface by conductive atomic force microscopy (C-AFM), indicated that stacking faults (SFs) are the conductive defects having the biggest influence on the electrical properties of the Schottky barrier on 3C-SiC. Further, C-AFM current mapping of the semiconductor surface also showed that an ultraviolet (UV) irradiation process enables the electrical passivation of the SFs, due to their preferential oxidation. From current-voltage (I-V) measurements in diodes of different area (different amount of defects) it was observed that, for the non-irradiated surface, no significant dependence of the Schottky barrier height (ΦB) on the contact area could be observed. On contrast, after the UV-irradiation, ΦB gradually increases with decreasing contact area, ultimately leading to a nearly ideal value of the barrier height for the smallest diodes. The results indicate that even after the passivation of SFs there are still some electrically active defects contributing to deleterious conduction, responsible for a worsening of the electrical properties of the diodes.