IUVSTA 15th International Vacuum Congress (IVC-15), AVS 48th International Symposium (AVS-48), 11th International Conference on Solid Surfaces (ICSS-11)
    Nanometer Structures Thursday Sessions
       Session NS-ThP

Paper NS-ThP2
Bistability in Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy of Ga-Terminated Si(111)

Thursday, November 1, 2001, 5:30 pm, Room 134/135

Session: Poster Session
Presenter: I.B. Altfeder, Rowland Institute for Science
Authors: I.B. Altfeder, Rowland Institute for Science
D. Chen, Rowland Institute for Science
Correspondent: Click to Email

Demonstration of a Tunable Bistable Tunnel Device with a Low Temperature STM and A Self-organized Ga Array on Si(111)@footnote 1@ Bistable electron transport, a phenomenon usually associated with double-barrier structures, has been observed with a conventional STM junction formed between a metal tip and a Ga-terminated Si(111) surface at 77 K. Large hysteresis loops appear in the current-voltage characteristics when electrons are injected from the tip to the surface. The turn-on bias varies from -3.1 to -4.0 V and shows an inverse dependence on the tip-sample distance, indicating a strong field effect. The turn-off bias, however, is essentially pinned at a conductance threshold of -2.7 V.