Quantitative dopant profiling in semiconductors: A Kelvin probe force microscopy model

Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) is used to investigate the electrostatic force between a conductive probe and nanostructured Si with shallow or buried selectively doped regions under ambient conditions. A unique KPFM model correlates the measured Kelvin bias with the calculated Fermi energy, and thus allows quantitative dopant profiling. We show that due to an asymmetric electric-dipole formation at the semiconductor surface the measured Kelvin bias is related with the difference between Fermi energy and respective band edge, and independent of the probe potential.