Measurement of the hot electron attenuation length of copper.

Authors :: Garramone, J. J.
Abel, J. R.
Sitnitsky, I. L.
Zhao, L.
Appelbaum, I.
LaBella, V. P.
Source :: Applied Physics Letters. 2/8/2010, Vol. 96 Issue 6, p062105. 3p. 3 Graphs.
Publication Year :: 2010
Abstract: Ballistic electron emission microscopy is utilized to investigate the hot-electron scattering properties of Cu through Cu/Si(001) Schottky diodes. A Schottky barrier height of 0.64±0.02 eV and a hot-electron attenuation length of 33.4±2.9 nm are measured at a tip bias of 1.0 eV and a temperature of 80 K. The dependence of the attenuation length with tip bias is fit to a Fermi liquid model that allows extraction of the inelastic and elastic scattering components. This modeling indicates that elastic scattering due to defects, grain boundaries, and interfaces is the dominant scattering mechanism in this energy range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]