Electrically-triggered micro-explosion in a graphene/SiO2/Si structure
Abstract Electrically-triggered micro-explosions in a metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) structure can fragment/atomize analytes placed on it, offering an interesting application potential for chip-scale implementation of atomic emission spectroscopy (AES). We have investigated the mechanisms of mi...
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| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | article |
| Language: | EN |
| Published: |
Nature Portfolio
2018
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doaj.org/article/3ffaee1b8bac4f889d3730f384b8dde7 |
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| Summary: | Abstract Electrically-triggered micro-explosions in a metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) structure can fragment/atomize analytes placed on it, offering an interesting application potential for chip-scale implementation of atomic emission spectroscopy (AES). We have investigated the mechanisms of micro-explosions occurring in a graphene/SiO2/Si (GOS) structure under a high-field pulsed voltage drive. Micro-explosions are found to occur more readily in inversion bias than in accumulation bias. Explosion damages in inversion-biased GOS differ significantly between n-Si and p-Si substrate cases: a highly localized, circular, protruding cone-shape melt of Si for the n-Si GOS case, whereas shallow, irregular, laterally-propagating trenches in SiO2/Si for the p-Si GOS case. These differing damage morphologies are explained by different carrier-multiplication processes: in the n-Si case, impact ionization propagates from SiO2 to Si, causing highly-localized melt explosions of Si in the depletion region, whereas in the p-Si case, from SiO2 towards graphene electrode, resulting in laterally wide-spread micro-explosions. These findings are expected to help optimize the GOS-based atomizer structure for low voltage, small-volume analyte, high sensitivity chip-scale emission spectroscopy. |
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