Correlation between Si-H/D bond desorption and injected electron energy in metal-oxide-silicon tunneling diodes

Metal-oxide-silicon tunneling diodes with SiO₂/Si interface passivated by hydrogen or deuterium are stressed under various constant current conditions. When the energy of injected electrons exceeds a threshold value (∼3 eV), both hydrogen and deuterium passivated devices reveal similar soft breakdown behaviors. On the contrary, when the injected electrons with low energy (<3 eV) at high current density stress, a giant isotope effect is observed in the deuterated devices due to the resonance between the Si-D bond bending mode and the transverse optical phonon of bulk silicon.