Magnetic-field- and bias-sensitive conductivity of a hybrid Fe/SiO 2/p-Si structure in planar geometry

Abstract

Pronounced magnetic-field- and bias-sensitive features of the transport properties of a Fe/SiO2/p-Si hybrid structure in planar geometry at temperature variation are investigated. Comparative analysis of two Fe/SiO 2/p-Si samples, one with a continuous Fe film and the other with two electrodes formed from a Fe layer and separated by a micron gap, shows that these features are due to the metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) transition with a Schottky barrier near the interface between SiO2 and p-Si. Resistance of such a MIS transition depends exponentially on temperature and bias. In the structure with a continuous ferromagnetic film, the competition between conductivities of the MIS transition and the Fe layer results in the effect of current channel switching between the Fe layer and a semiconductor substrate. Within certain limits, this process can be controlled by a bias current and a magnetic field. Positive magnetoresistance of the structures at high temperatures is determined, most likely, by disorder-induced weak localization. In the structure with the gap, negative magnetoresistance is observed at certain temperature and bias. Its occurrence should be attributed to an inversion layer formed in the semiconductor near the SiO2/p-Si interface when MIS transition is in the inversion regime. © 2011 American Institute of Physics.