The SiO
2/nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si)/SiO
2 double-barrier structure on p-type (100) silicon substrate was fabricate
d in situ by plasma oxi
dation an
d layer-by-layer
deposition at low temperature (250 &
deg;C) in a plasma enhance
d chemical vapor
deposition reactor. Frequency-
depen
dent capacitance&n
dash;voltage measurements were performe
d to stu
dy the electrical properties an
d the results can be explaine
d by schematic ban
d diagrams an
d equivalent circuits. Single electron charging effect (correspon
ding to the two capacitance peaks) in large ensemble of nc-Si
dots (
der=0 SRC=/images/glyphs/BQ1.GIF>10
9) was observe
d at room temperature, which
demonstrates that the Coulomb blocka
de energy in nc-Si
dots is larger than room thermal energy
kBT an
d the nc-Si size fluctuation effects on the quantum confinement of this SiO
2/nc-Si/SiO
2 structure.