Space charge and surface state characteristics of the silicon/electrolyte interface

The essentially blocking nature of the silicon/electrolyte (S/E) interface enables charge to be induced electrostatically at the interface by an applied bias. The use of pulsed rather than DC biases provides a fairly detailed picture of the silicon interface. The results reported here concern the silicon space-charge layer, localized states at the S/E interface and charge leakage across the interface. As to the first, evidence is presented that strong, quantized accumulation layers of excess surface-electron densities as high as 10¹⁴ cm^-2 can be induced at the Si surface, an order of magnitude larger that can be attained in Si inversion layers in MOS structures. The localized states are of total density of about 10¹² cm^-2 and of capture cross sections around 5 × 10^-18 cm². The nature of these states is not known; they are probably fast surface states at the silicon surface. The charge leakage occurs under strong accumulation conditions, very likely by electron tunneling from the silicon electrode into the electrolyte. It takes place practically instantaneously, but the leaked charge remains stored near the interface for a considerable time. Some suggestions concerning this unexpected behavior are put forward.