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The study of scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) induced localized degradation and polarity dependent breakdown (BD) of HfO 2 /SiO x dielectric stacks is presented in this work, together with a correlated investigation of the BD locations by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The localized dielectric BD events are also analysed using conductive-atomic force microscopy. The analysis of the degradation and breakdown phenomenon has been performed from a macroscopic (device) level to a localized nanometer scale BD location. A new technique is adopted to induce the degradation and BD of the HfO 2 /SiO x dielectric stacks locally using a combined STM/scanning electron microscopy nano-probing system. The BD locations were identified on blanket wafers and gate electrode area of the dielectric, and the sample containing these regions was prepared using focused ion beam for the physical analysis using TEM. This method of analysis is very useful in studying the nature of the BD events in dielectrics with and without the gate electrode, elucidating the role of the gate electrode in dielectric BD events.

We report a MEMS-integrated on-chip tunable resonator consisting of two coupled one-dimensional (1D) Photonic Crystal nanocavities capable of achieving a relatively large tuning range with no significant deterioration of quality factor and sufficiently large transmissions.

We report in this paper a sub-wavelength 1D photonic crystal resonator tuned using a nanomechanical approach. This device demonstrated a compact and low power approach to achieve tunability of photonic crystal resonances. The device is tuned utilizing coupled cavity approach on an air suspended silicon waveguide with tapered etched holes. The etched holes are fine tuned to achieve a reasonably high-Q that is suitable for optical communications. Effects of wavelength detuning by longitudinal shifting and lateral shifting of the perturbing cavity are investigated. Finally a nano-electromechanical actuators are designed and optimized for low power consumption and yet achieving large displacement range for effective de-coupling of both cavities. Large resonance shift can be used in highly sensitive sensors, optical filters or an optical switch.