Hysteretic behavior of the charge injection in single silicon nanoparticles

Charge injection in individual silicon nanoparticles has been investigated by electric force microscopy (EFM). Stored charges injected from the EFM tip have been counted using a quantitative method. Injection kinetics reveals the setting-up of an equilibrium regime. Equilibrium charge-voltage characteristics are analyzed, and display an overall linear behavior corresponding to successive tunneling through the nonequivalent tip-nanoparticle and nanoparticle-substrate oxide barriers. A hysteretic behavior is observed in the equilibrium charge-voltage characteristics, and attributed to a secondary charge injection process associated with the nanoparticle oxide surface. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.