Influence of Conductivity and Dielectric Constant of Water–Dioxane Mixtures on the Electrical Response of SiNW-Based FETs

In this study, we report on the electrical response of top-down, p-type silicon nanowire field-effect transistors exposed to water and mixtures of water and dioxane. First, the capacitive coupling of the back gate and the liquid gate via an Ag/AgCl electrode were compared in water. It was found that for liquid gating smaller potentials are needed to obtain similar responses of the nanowire compared to back gating. In the case of back gating, the applied potential couples through the buried oxide layer, indicating that the associated capacitance dominates all other capacitances involved during this mode of operation. Next, the devices were exposed to mixtures of water and dioxane to study the effect of these mixtures on the device characteristics, including the threshold voltage (V(T)). The V(T) dependency on the mixture composition was found to be related to the decreased dissociation of the surface silanol groups and the conductivity of the mixture used. This latter was confirmed by experiments with constant conductivity and varying water-dioxane mixtures.