Electrical transport properties of a diode consisting of hydrogenated nanocrystalline silicon film

The diode consisting of nano-silicon quantum dots embedded in an amorphous silicon matrix is fabricated. The discontinuous staircases on its I-V curves are observed. There are two distinct regimes on I-V curves of diode: (1) the sequential tunneling regime, where current increases monotonously with increased negative bias; (2) the resonant tunneling regime, where the current increases dramatically with increased negative bias and three quantum staircases appear. The qualitative explanation of this physical phenomenon is proposed.