Inelastic Electron Tunnelling Spectroscopy (IETS) of High-k Dielectrics.

It is shown that inelastic electron tunnelling spectroscopy (IETS) is a powerful technique to study microstructures and defects in Metal-Insulator-Semiconductor (MIS) systems where the insulator is sufficiently thin to allow significant tunnelling current to flow through. The information that may be revealed by IETS contains a wide variety of inelastic interactions, including interactions with phonons, various bonding vibrations, bonding defects, and impurities. Examples will be given to illustrate the capabilities of this technique. © 2005 American Institute of Physics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]