Investigation of Vertical Current Phenomena in the Insulator/Oxide Semiconductor Heterojunction Using XPS Analysis and an Atmospheric-Pressure Plasma Treatment System

Transferring charge carriers through an insulator film between two metal electrodes is a major issue in various electronic devices, including metal/insulator/metal (MIM) diodes and resistive switching memories. Recently, a concept has been proposed that can unidirectionally control the direction and magnitude of the vertical current in a metal/insulator/oxide semiconductor/metal (MIOSM) structure by utilizing a bulk-limited conduction mechanism, which depends on the trap and subgap states in the insulator. This shows the potential to expand the processing window of conventional electronic devices, which follow the electrode-limited conduction mechanism, but is still insufficient to provide direct evidence that the flow of the electrical current in the MIOSM structure is due to the bulk-limited conduction within the insulator. In this study, we fabricated P ++ Si/AlO x /Al (MIM) and P ++ …