Theoretical determination of the impact of channel morphology and quantum size effects on the surface potential of nanocrystalline silicon thin film transistors

In this work, we propose an analytical model allowing the calculation of nanocrystalline silicon thin film transistors surface potential by considering a granular morphology of silicon nanocrystallites forming the channel. Results show that, according to the quantum effects on dielectric constant and band gap, the surface potential values are strongly related to the silicon crystallites structure in terms of size and geometry. The comparison of our results with existing research data shows a good agreement between the surface potential shapes and an interesting difference in the surface potential variations related to the morphology specificity considered in our theoretical approach.