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Bipolar device fabrication using a scanning tunnelling microscope

Nature Electronics volume 3, pages 524–530 (2020)Cite this article

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Abstract

Hydrogen-resist lithography with the tip of a scanning tunnelling microscope can be used to fabricate atomic-scale dopant devices in silicon substrates and could potentially be used to build a dopant-based quantum computer. However, all devices fabricated so far have been based on the n-type dopant precursor phosphine. Here, we show that diborane can be used as a p-type dopant precursor, allowing p-type and bipolar dopant devices to be created. Characterization of diborane δ-layers reveals that similar mobilities and densities can be achieved as for phosphine, with sheet resistivities as low as 300 Ω □−1. Scanning tunnelling microscope imaging and transport measurements of a 5.5-nm-wide p-type dopant nanowire give an estimated upper bound of 2 nm for the lithographic resolution of the p-type dopant profiles. By combining our p-type doping approach with established phosphine-based n-type doping, we fabricate a 100-nm-wide p–n junction and show that its electrical behaviour is similar to that of an Esaki diode.

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Fig. 1: Adsorption and surface reactions of diborane with the Si(001) and H:Si(001) surface.
Fig. 2: Sample preparation and SIMS measurements of boron doped δ-layers.
Fig. 3: Transport properties of boron δ-layers.
Fig. 4: Electrical measurements of STM defined boron-doped nanowire/gap device.
Fig. 5: Fabrication of a bipolar dopant device with STM lithography.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study (STM images, raw measurement data, raw SIMS data) are available through Zenodo at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3881492. Further information is available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge financial support from EU-FET grants SiAM 610637, PAMS 610446 and from the Swiss NCCR QSIT. We thank D. Widmer and G. Meyer for technical help with the STM system and software and N. Pascher, H. Schmid and J. Cole for discussions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. IBM Research - Zürich, Rüschlikon, Switzerland

    Tomáš Škereň, Sigrun A. Köster & Andreas Fuhrer

  2. IMEC, Heverlee, Belgium

    Bastien Douhard & Claudia Fleischmann

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  1. Tomáš Škereň
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  2. Sigrun A. Köster
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  3. Bastien Douhard
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Contributions

A.F. designed the study and directed the project. S.A.K. and A.F. developed the diborane doping procedures, fabricated and measured the Hall bar devices, S.A.K., T.S. and A.F. developed the diborane lithography process, A.F. and T.S. designed, fabricated and measured the STM patterned devices. B.D., C.F. and T.S. performed the SIMS experiments and analysed the SIMS data. T.S., A.F. and S.A.K. analysed the device data and wrote the manuscript with contributions from all authors.

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Correspondence to Andreas Fuhrer.

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Škereň, T., Köster, S.A., Douhard, B. et al. Bipolar device fabrication using a scanning tunnelling microscope. Nat Electron 3, 524–530 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-020-0445-5

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