All-Electronic Nanosecond-Resolved Scanning Tunneling Microscopy: Facilitating the Investigation of Single Dopant Charge Dynamics

TL;DR

This paper introduces an all-electronic, nanosecond-resolved scanning tunneling microscopy technique that enables detailed investigation of single dopant charge dynamics in silicon at atomic resolution.

Contribution

The work presents a novel, accessible time-resolved STM method capable of measuring dopant dynamics with nanosecond resolution, surpassing traditional millisecond limitations.

Findings

Successful demonstration of nanosecond-resolved dopant charge measurements

Development of a new time-resolved scanning tunneling spectroscopy technique

Enhanced ability to study atomic-scale dynamics in semiconductors

Abstract

The miniaturization of semiconductor devices to the scales where small numbers of dopants can control device properties requires the development of new techniques capable of characterizing their dynamics. Investigating single dopants requires sub-nanometer spatial resolution which motivates the use of scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), however, conventional STM is limited to millisecond temporal resolution. Several methods have been developed to overcome this shortcoming. Among them is all-electronic time-resolved STM, which is used in this work to study dopant dynamics in silicon with nanosecond resolution. The methods presented here are widely accessible and allow for local measurement of a wide variety of dynamics at the atomic scale. A novel time-resolved scanning tunneling spectroscopy technique is presented and used to efficiently search for dynamics.