The continued efforts to improve performance and decrease size of semiconductor logic devices are facing serious challenges. In order to further develop one of the most important nanoelectronic building blocks, the metal-oxide-semiconductor fieldeffect-transistor (MOSFET), several major problems have to be solved. This thesis deals with the influence of charge states on two specific issues rela...

Interfaces between silicon and oxides are of great fundamental and technological interest. According to the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors, the SiO2-based gate oxide in metal-oxide-semiconductor MOS transistors used in computer processors should be replaced by a higher-K value dielectric material starting in 2008.1 Presently, off-state gate tunneling is increasing power con...

In this work, the unipolar resistive switching behaviour of Ni/HfO2/Si(n+) devices is studied. The structures are characterized using both current and voltage sweeps, with device resistance its cycle-to-cycle variability being analysed in each case. Experimental measurements indicate a clear improvement on states stability when sweeps to induce set reset processes. Moreover, it has been found t...

The extracted mobilities from MoS2 devices are usually much lower than the theoretical value. Without understanding the origin of mobility killers (surrounding dipoles/traps) and the effects of substrate passivation treatments, it is difficult to improve transport properties. This work presents a study of the interfaces between MoS2 and its surroundings (substrates/dielectrics) using density fu...

Metal oxide-based resistive random access memory devices are highly attractive candidates for next-generation nonvolatile memories, but the switching phenomena remain poorly understood. This article focuses on microscopic understanding of initial forming step, which is decisive process. The integrated effect in Ti/ HfO2/ TiWN metal insulator structures studied. After forming, transmission elect...