Transient Behaviour of UV-induced Interface States in Au/SiO2/n-Si Tunnel Structures

The generation and subsequent spontaneous decay of interface states in semi-transparent metal / tunnel oxide / silicon diodes after exposure to UV irradiation were studied by means of analysis of capacitance-voltage characteristics. The densities of the two groups of interface states, in communication with metal or semiconductor, were evaluated as a function of time using a recently proposed method which makes use of the slope and the voltage axis intercept of thle 1/C² curve.