Using atomistic quantum mechanical tight-binding (TB) methods that include the full band structure, we study electron tunneling through three-dimensional models of n+-Si/SiO2/p-Si capacitors with thicknesses between 0.7 and 4.4 nm. We find that the microscopic oxide structure influences transmission coefficients and tunnel currents significantly. The best agreement with experimental current-thickness and current-voltage data is obtained for a model derived from the β-cristobalite polytype of SiO2 that has a fairly small conduction band mass of 0.34 m0. Standard approximate effective mass-based methods reproduce the TB results only if an energy and oxide thickness dependence of the mass parameter is introduced.     «

Using atomistic quantum mechanical tight-binding (TB) methods that include the full band structure, we study electron tunneling through three-dimensional models of n+-Si/SiO2/p-Si capacitors with thicknesses between 0.7 and 4.4 nm. We find that the microscopic oxide structure influences transmission coefficients and tunnel currents significantly. The best agreement with experimental current-thickness and current-voltage data is obtained for a model derived from the β-cristobalite polytype of SiO...     »