Measurement of the high-field drift velocity of electrons in inversion layers on silicon

A new technique is described for the study of high-field transport along semiconductor interfaces. The technique involves observation of the time-of-flight of a packet of carriers across a region of uniform tangential electric field at the semiconductor surface. We use the technique to measure the drift velocity of electrons along the Si-SiO
2
interface for tangential fields in the range 2.5-4.0 kV/cm. Drift velocities as high as 8.5 × 10
⁶
cm/s are observed; these values are almost 40% higher than previously reported in the literature.