Single-charge band-to-band tunneling via multiple-dopant clusters in nanoscale Si Esaki diodes

The electrostatic potential of p⁺-n⁺ junctions, as in Esaki (tunnel) diodes, originates from the Coulomb potentials of ionized dopants in the depletion-layer, but it has been modeled so far based on uniform space-charge regions, ignoring the discrete and random dopant distribution. This model can explain well the band-to-band tunneling (BTBT) between the opposite bands of the quasineutral regions (conduction band in the n⁺-region and valence band in the p⁺-region). In this letter, we show that a BTBT transport model should contain the mechanism of tunneling via “inherent” localized bandgap-states, created by dopant-induced potential fluctuation, which becomes detectable as a parallel transport mechanism in nanoscale Esaki diodes. This is manifested by the observation of single-charge (SC) BTBT at 5.5 K in nanoscale Si Esaki diodes. Numerical analysis of nanoscale p⁺-n⁺ junctions with random dopant-atom distributions suggests that SC-BTBT is mediated by a potential dip created by a number of dopants “clustered” near each other, i.e., by a multiple-dopant cluster.