Imaging hot-electron emission from metal-oxide-semiconductor structures

We have used hot electrons emitted into vacuum from biased metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) structures to form a direct image of the spatial emission distribution. Hot-electron emission microscopy allows us to investigate the emission characteristics of biased MOS structures and its correlation with morphology, as well as time-dependent prebreakdown phenomena at high spatial resolution (similar to 20 nm). We show that different oxide structures have very different emission, as well as prebreakdown characteristics.