On tunneling in metal-oxide-silicon structures

The analysis of Fowler-Nordheim tunneling data in metal-oxide-silicon structures is reviewed. It is concluded that a parabolic dispersion relation for SiO2 and an electron effective mass of mox = 0.5m provide the best description of the experimental results, this conclusion is consistent with recent band structure calculations for SiO2. Also included is a brief discussion of the transverse momentum conservation issue for tunneling from silicon of 〈100〉, 〈110〉, and 〈111〉 orientation into SiO2.