The effect of high temperature annealing on Schottky diode characteristics of Au/n-Si contacts

The current-voltage and capacitance-voltage characteristics of Au/n-Si/Al Schottky barrier diode were measured in the temperature range of 100-800 °C. Au/n-Si/Al Schottky barrier diode annealed at temperatures from 100 °C to 400 °C for 5 min and from 500 °C to 800 °C for 7 min in N₂ atmosphere. The electronic parameters such as barrier height and ideality factor (n) of the device were determined using Cheung's method. To determine whether or not a Schottky diode is ideal it can be used the ideality factor (n) found from its forward current-voltage (I-V) characteristics. It has been found that the value of Φ_b (0.82 or 0.83 eV) remains constant up to 500 °C and 0.80 and 0.79 eV in 600, 750 °C respectively in the forward I-V mode. An ideality factor value of 1.04 was obtained for as-deposited sample. The ideality factor n varied from 1.04 to 2.30. The experimental results have shown that the ideality factor (n) values increases with increasing annealing temperature up to 750 °C. This has been explained in terms of the presence of different metallic-like phases produced by chemical reactions between the Au and Si substrate because of the annealing process. The Φ_b (C-V) values obtained from the reverse-bias C⁻²-V curves of the as-deposited and annealed diode are in the range 0.99-1.12 eV. The difference between Φ_b (C-V) and the Φ_b (I-V) is in close agreement with values reported in literature. Besides Fermi energy level and carrier concentration determined by using thermionic emission (TE) mechanism show strong temperature dependence. It has been seen current-voltage characteristics of the diode show an ideal behavior.     

Effect of an organic compound (Methyl Red) interfacial layer on the calculation of characteristic parameters of an Al/Methyl Red/p-Si sandwich Schottky barrier diode

An Al/Methyl Red/p-Si sandwich Schottky barrier diode (SBD) has been fabricated by adding a solution of the organic compound Methyl Red in chloroform onto a p-Si substrate, and then evaporating the solvent. Current-voltage (I-V) measurements of the Al/Methyl Red/p-Si sandwich SBD have been carried out at room temperature and in the dark. The Al/Methyl Red/p-Si sandwich SBD demonstrated rectifying behavior. Barrier height (BH) and ideality factor values of 0.855 eV and 1.19, respectively, for this device have been determined from the forward-bias I-V characteristics. The Al/Methyl Red/p-Si sandwich SBD showed non-ideal I-V behavior with the value of ideality factor greater than unity. The energy distribution of the interface state density determined from I-V characteristics increases exponentially with bias from 3.68 × 10¹² cm^− 2 eV^− 1 at (0.81 − E_v) eV to 9.99 × 10¹³ cm^− 2 eV^− 1 at (0.69 − E_v) eV.     

Current-voltage and capacitance-voltage characteristics of polypyrrole/p-InP structure

The polypyrrole/p-InP structure has been made by the electrochemical polymerization of the organic polypyrrole onto the p-InP substrate. The current-voltage (I-V) and capacitance-voltage (C-V) characteristics of diode have been determined at room temperature and different frequencies. At each frequency, the measured capacitance decreases with increasing frequency due to a continuous distribution of the interface states in the frequency range 50 kHz-1 MHz. From the I-V characteristics of the polypyrrole/p-InP structure, ideality factor and barrier height (BH) values of 1.68 and 0.59 eV, respectively, were obtained from a forward-bias I-V plot. The diode shows non-ideal I-V behavior with ideality greater than unity. This is attributed to the interfacial layer, the interface states and barrier inhomogeneity of the device. As expected, the C-V curves gave a BH value higher than those derived from I-V measurements. This discrepancy can be explained from the fact that due to the different nature of the C-V and I-V measurement techniques, BHs deduced from them are not always the same.     

Electrical characteristics of an organic thin copolymer/p-Si Schottky barrier diode

We have fabricated a poly(aniline-3-methyl thiophene) organic thin material on p-Si substrate by placing a solution of copolymer in acetonitrile on top of a p-Si substrate and then evaporating the solvent. The electrical and interface state density properties of the poly(aniline-3-methyl thiophene) copolymer/p-Si/Al diode have been investigated through methods using current-voltage (I-V), Cheung's, and a modified Norde's function. Good agreement was observed with the values of barrier height as obtained from all of these methods. The diode shows a non-ideal I-V behavior with an ideality factor greater than unity, which could be ascribed to the interfacial layer, interface states and series resistance. The interface state density of diode was determined using the forward-bias I-V characteristic technique at room temperature, and it decreases exponentially with bias from 1.39 × 10¹⁶ cm⁻² eV⁻¹ in (0.06 − E_v) eV to 4.86 × 10¹⁵ cm⁻² eV⁻¹ in (0.51 − E_v) eV.     

Analysis of surface states and series resistance in Au/n-Si Schottky diodes with insulator layer using current-voltage and admittance-voltage characteristics

In order to good interpret the experimentally observed Au/n-Si (metal-semiconductor) Schottky diodes with thin insulator layer (18 Å) parameters such as the zero-bias barrier height (Φ_bo), ideality factor (n), series resistance (R_s) and surface states have been investigated using current-voltage (I-V), capacitance-frequency (C-f) and conductance-frequency (G-f) techniques. The forward and reverse bias I-V characteristics of Au/n-Si (MS) Schottky diode were measured at room temperature. In addition, C-f and G-f characteristics were measured in the frequency range of 1 kHz-1 MHz. The higher values of C and G at low frequencies were attributed to the insulator layer and surface states. Under intermediate forward bias, the semi-logarithmic Ln (I)-V plot shows a good linear region. From this region, the slope and the intercept of this plot on the current axis allow to determine the ideality factor (n), the zero-barrier height (Φ_bo) and the saturation current (I_S) evaluated to 2.878, 0.652 and 3.61 × 10⁻⁷ A, respectively. The diode shows non-ideal I-V behavior with ideality factor greater than unity. This behavior can be attributed to the interfacial insulator layer, the surface states, series resistance and the formation barrier inhomogeneity at metal-semiconductor interface. From the C-f and G-f characteristics, the energy distribution of surface states (N_ss) and their relaxation time (τ) have been determined in the energy range of (E_c − 0.493E_v)-(E_c − 0.610) eV taking into account the forward bias I-V data. The values of N_ss and τ change from 9.35 × 10¹³ eV⁻¹ cm⁻² to 2.73 × 10¹³ eV⁻¹ cm⁻² and 1.75 × 10⁻⁵ s to 4.50 × 10⁻⁴ s, respectively.     

Fabrication and characterization of transparent MEH-PPV/n-GaN (0 0 0 1) heterojunction devices

n-GaN/MEH-PPV thin film heterojunction diode was fabricated by depositing MEH-PPV thin film using spin-coating process on n-GaN (0 0 0 1). The junction properties were evaluated by measuring I-V characteristics. I-V characteristics exhibited well defined rectifying behavior with a barrier height of 0.89 eV and ideality factor of 1.7. The optical band gap of the MEH-PPV film using optical absorption method was found to be 2.2 eV and the fundamental absorption edge in the film is formed by the direct allowed transitions. At higher electric fields, the conductivity mechanism of the film shows a trap charge limited current mechanism. The obtained results indicate that the electronic parameters of the heterojunction diode are affected by properties of MEH-PPV organic film.     

Properties of PEDOT:PEG/ZnO/p-Si heterojunction diode

The zinc oxide (ZnO) and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) bis-poly(ethyleneglycol) (PEDOT:PEG) films were deposited on p-Si substrate by sputter and spin coating methods, respectively. An organic/inorganic heterojunction diode having PEDOT:PEG/ZnO on p-Si substrate was fabricated. The barrier height (BH) and the ideality factor values for the device were found to be 0.82 ± 0.01 eV and 1.9 ± 0.01, respectively. It has been seen that the value of BH is significantly larger than those of conventional Au/p-Si metal–semiconductor contacts. The PEDOT:PEG/ZnO/p-Si heterostructure exhibits a non-ideal I–V behavior with the ideality factor greater than unity that could be ascribed to the interfacial layer, interface states and series resistance. The modified Norde's function combined with conventional forward I–V method was used to extract the parameters including the barrier height and series resistance. At the same time, the physical properties of ZnO and PEDOT:PEG films deposited by sputter and spin coating technique, respectively, were investigated at room temperature. The obtained results indicate that the electrical parameters of the diode are affected by structural properties of ZnO film and PEDOT:PEG organic film.     

Analysis of temperature dependent electrical characteristics of Au/n-GaAs/GaAs structures in a wide temperature range

The temperature dependence of some electrical parameters of Au/n-GaAs/GaAs structures obtained from the forward bias current-voltage (I-V) and reverse bias capacitance-voltage (C-V) characteristics is studied in the temperature range of 79-400 K. The forward bias current I is found to be proportional to I_o(T)exp(AV), where A is the slope of Ln(I)-V curves and almost independent of the voltage and temperature, and I_o(T) is relatively a weak function of temperature. The semi-logarithmic Ln(I)-V characteristics based on the thermionic emission (TE) mechanism showed a decrease in the ideality factor (n) and an increase in the zero-bias barrier height (Φ_Bo) with increasing temperature. These behaviors don't obey the pure thermionic emission (TE) theory. However, the barrier height Φ_B(C-V) determined from the C⁻²-V plot at high frequency decreased linearly with the temperature. Analysis of the data indicated that the predominant current conduction mechanism of our sample was a trap-assisted multistep tunneling rather than the other mechanisms.     

Growth and properties of transparent p-NiO/n-ITO (In2O3:Sn) p-n junction thin film diode

We have grown “all oxide” transparent p-n junction thin film nanostructure device by using chemical solution deposition and E-beam evaporation onto SiO₂ substrate. Combined grazing incidence X-ray diffraction and atomic force microscopy confirm phase pure, mono-disperse 30 nm NiO and 2 at. wt.% Sn doped In₂O₃ (ITO) nanocrystallites. Better than 70% optical transparency, at a wavelength of 600 nm, is achieved across 160 nm thick p-n junction. The optical band gap across the junction was found to decrease as compared to the intrinsic ITO and NiO. The current-voltage (I-V) characteristics show rectifying nature with dynamic transfer resistance ratio of the order of 10³ in the forward bias condition. Very small reverse leakage current with appreciable breakdown was observed under the reverse bias condition. The observed optical and electrical properties of oxide transparent diode are attributed to the heteroepitaxial nature and carrier diffusion at the junction interface.     

Electrical characteristics of Au/n-GaAs Schottky barrier diodes with and without SiO2 insulator layer at room temperature

In this study, our main goal is fabricated with and without insulator layer Au/n-GaAs Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) to explain whether or not the insulator layer is effective on some electric parameters such as Φ_B, n, N_ss, and R_s. The current-voltage (I-V) and capacitance-voltage (C-V) characteristics of metal-semiconductor (Au/n-GaAs) are investigated and compared with metal-insulator-semiconductor (Au/SiO₂/n-GaAs) Schottky diodes. From the room temperature I-V characteristics of these devices, the main electrical parameters such as, ideality factor (n) and zero bias barrier height (Φ_bo) values of 1.25 and 0.73 eV for Au/n-GaAs, and 1.51 and 0.75 eV for Au/SiO₂/n-GaAs, were obtained. The interface distribution profile (N_ss) as a function of (E_c − E_ss) was extracted from the forward-bias I-V measurements by taking into account the bias dependence of the effective barrier height (Φ_e) and series resistance (R_s) for the Schottky diodes. The N_ss values obtained taking into account the series resistance values are lower than those obtained without considering the series resistance. The diodes show non-ideal I-V behavior with ideality factor greater than unity. This behavior is attributed to the interfacial insulator layer and the interface states. The I-V characteristics confirmed that the distribution of N_ss, R_s, and interfacial insulator layer are important parameters that influence the electrical characteristics of metal-semiconductor and metal-insulator-semiconductor Schottky diodes.     

Bias frequency dependence of pn junction charging damage induced by plasma processing

Plasma-induced charging damage to pn junction in metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) was studied by using an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) reactor with Ar gas. The junction leakage current (I_leak) was measured for various source/drain to well in MOSFETs and simple diode structures. Two different rf bias frequencies, 13.56 MHz and 400 kHz, were utilized to investigate the effect of frequency on an increase in I_leak. The I_leak of n⁺/p and p⁺/n junctions was found to increase by a plasma treatment. In particular, more severe damage was observed for n⁺/p junction in both n-channel MOSFETs and the diodes. These observed results imply that plasma plays a role primarily as a positive current source. With regard to the rf bias frequency effects, samples exposed to the 400-kHz plasma were found to suffer from larger I_leak than those to the 13.56 MHz. From capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurement of junction capacitance changes, we also clarified that the observed increase in I_leak was attributed to the defect density at pn junction created by the plasma charging damage.     

Effect of annealing temperature on electrical properties of Au/polyvinyl alcohol/n-InP Schottky barrier structure

In the present work, thin film of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) is fabricated on n-type InP substrate as an interfacial layer for electronic modification of Au/n-InP Schottky contact. The electrical characteristics of Au/PVA/n-InP Schottky diode are determined at annealing temperature in the range of 100-300 °C by current-voltage (I-V) and capacitance-voltage (C-V) methods. The Schottky barrier height and ideality factor (n) values of the as-deposited Au/PVA/n-InP diode are obtained at room temperature as 0.66 eV (I-V), 0.82 eV (C-V) and 1.32, respectively. Upon annealing at 200 °C in nitrogen atmosphere for 1 min, the barrier height value increases to 0.81 eV (I-V), 0.99 eV (C-V) and ideality factor decreases to 1.18. When the contact is annealed at 300 °C, the barrier height value decreases to 0.77 eV (I-V), 0.96 eV (C-V) and ideality factor increases to 1.22. It is observed that the interfacial layer of PVA increases the barrier height by the influence of the space charge region of the Au/n-InP Schottky junction. The discrepancy between Schottky barrier heights calculated from I-V and C-V measurements is also explained. Further, Cheung's functions are used to extract the series resistance of Au/PVA/n-InP Schottky diode. The interface state density as determined by Terman's method is found to be 1.04 × 10¹² and 0.59 × 10¹² cm^− 2 eV^− 1 for the as-deposited and 200 °C annealed Au/PVA/n-InP Schottky diodes. Finally, it is seen that the Schottky diode parameters changed with increase in the annealing temperature.     

Defect introduction in Ge during inductively coupled plasma etching and Schottky barrier diode fabrication processes

We have etched Sb-doped n-type (111) oriented Ge by inductively coupled plasma (ICP), using argon, and subsequently studied the defects that this process introduced as well as the effect of this etching on Schottky barrier diode quality. Deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) revealed that ICP etching introduced only one prominent defect, EP_0.31, in Ge with a level at 0.31 eV below the conduction band. The properties of this defect are different to those of defects introduced by other particle-related processing steps, e.g. sputter deposition and electron beam deposition, that each introduces a different set of defects. DLTS depth profiling revealed the EP_0.31 concentration was a maximum (3.6 × 10¹³ cm^− 3) close to the Ge surface and then it decreased more or less exponentially into the Ge. Annealing at 250 °C reduced the EP_0.31 concentration to below the DLTS detection limit. Finally, current-voltage (I-V) measurements as a function of temperature revealed that the quality of Schottky contacts fabricated on the ICP-etched surfaces was excellent at − 100 K the reverse leakage current at − 1 V was below 10 ¹³ A (the detection limit of our I-V instrumentation).     

Synthesis of boron-doped diamond films by DC plasma CVD using a CH4+CO2+H2 gas mixture at lower substrate temperature and formation of an n-Si/p-diamond heterojunction

Diamond films were synthesized by direct current plasma chemical vapour deposition using a CH₄+CO₂+H₂ gas mixture on Si substrates. The optimum deposition conditions were determined. It was found that 0.4 A/cm² current density, at applied voltage of 1 kV, resulted in good-quality diamond films. The substrate temperature was 750 K which is considerably lower than the conventional requirement of ∼1100 K. Boron doping was achieved by passing a portion of the gas mixture through boric acid dissolved in methanol. The boron-doped p-type diamond films were deposited on an n-type single crystalline Si substrate and an n-Si/p-diamond heterojunction was fabricated. The p-n junction was characterized in terms of current-voltage (I-V) and capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurements.     

Photovoltaic and interface state density properties of the Au/n-GaAs Schottky barrier solar cell

The electrical and photovoltaic properties of the Au/n-GaAs Schottky barrier diode have been investigated. From the current-voltage characteristics, the electrical parameters such as, ideality factor and barrier height of the Au/n-GaAs diode were obtained to be 1.95 and 0.86 eV, respectively. The interface state distribution profile of the diode as a function of the bias voltage was extracted from the capacitance-voltage measurements. The interface state density D_it of the diode was found to vary from 3.0 × 10¹¹ eV⁻¹ cm⁻² at 0 V to 4.26 × 10¹⁰ eV⁻¹cm⁻² at 0.5 V. The diode shows a non-ideal current-voltage behavior with the ideality factor higher than unity due to the interfacial insulator layer and interface states. The diode under light illumination exhibits a good photovoltaic behavior. This behavior was explained in terms of minority carrier injection phenomenon. The photovoltaic parameters, such as open circuit voltage and short circuit current density were obtained to be 362 mV and J_sc = 28.3 μA/cm² under AM1, respectively.     

Investigation of the electrical parameters of Ag/p-TlGaSeS/C Schottky contacts

p-type TlGaSeS single crystal was used to fabricate a Schottky device. Silver and carbon metals were used as the Ohmic and Schottky contacts, respectively. The device which displayed wide RF band at 13.200 and narrow band at 62.517 kHz with Q value of 1.4 and of 6.3 × 10⁴, respectively, is characterized by means of current (I)–voltage (V), capacitance (C)–voltage characteristics as well as capacitance–frequency (f) characteristics. The device series resistance, ideality factor and barrier height are determined from the I–V curve as 35.8 MΩ, 1.2 and 0.74 eV, respectively. The apparent acceptor density and the build in voltage of the device increased with increasing ac signal frequency. The high Q value, observed at 62.517 kHz, indicated a much lower rate of energy loss relative to the stored energy of the device. The energy loss (Q⁻¹) is much less than 0.001% of the stored value. The device was tested and found to remain at the same mode of resonance for several hours. It never switched or ceased unless it was tuned off.     

Preparation and electrical characterization of Cd0.8Zn0.2Te/Si thin films

Thin films of Cd_0.8Zn_0.2Te/Si structures were prepared by vacuum evaporation technique. The electrical properties such as activation energy, barrier height, and transport mechanism along with the capacitance-voltage characteristics are analyzed. The zero field activation energy calculated from the saturation current density with the inverse absolute temperature is found to be 0.37 eV and the barrier height is 0.54 eV. As the applied bias voltage increases the activation energy decreases from 0.3 to 0.22 eV for the bias range of 0-2 V. From the observed current voltage characteristics it is found that the surface state density is high for the films deposited at room temperature. From the high-frequency (1 MHz) C-V measurement the built in voltage is found to be 0.15 V. The plot of 1/C² vs the applied bias voltage behaviour is linear, indicating the presence of abrupt junction. The acceptor concentration as obtained from the 1/C² vs bias voltage is 1.4×10¹⁶ cm⁻³.     

Transparent p-AgCoO2/n-ZnO diode heterojunction fabricated by pulsed laser deposition

Transparent diode heterojunction on ITO coated glass substrates was fabricated using p-type AgCoO₂ and n-type ZnO films by pulsed laser deposition (PLD). The PLD of AgCoO₂ thin films was carried out using the pelletized sintered target of AgCoO₂ powder, which was synthesized in-house by the hydrothermal process. The band gap of these thin films was found to be ∼ 3.89 eV and they had transmission of ∼ 55% in the visible spectral region. Although Hall measurements could only indicate mixed carrier type conduction but thermoelectric power measurements of Seebeck coefficient confirmed the p-type conductivity of the grown AgCoO₂ films. The PLD grown ZnO films showed a band gap of ∼ 3.28 eV, an average optical transmission of ∼ 85% and n-type carrier density of ∼ 4.6 × 10¹⁹ cm^− 3. The junction between p-AgCoO₂ and n-ZnO was found to be rectifying. The ratio of forward current to the reverse current was about 7 at 1.5 V. The diode ideality factor was much greater than 2.     

UV-detector based on pn-heterojunction diode composed of transparent oxide semiconductors, p-NiO/n-ZnO

A transparent ultraviolet (UV)-detector was fabricated using a high-quality pn-heterojunction diode composed of transparent oxide semiconductors, p-type NiO and n-type ZnO, and its UV-response was measured at room temperature. Transparent tri-layered oxide films of ZnO/NiO/ITO were heteroepitaxially grown on an YSZ (1 1 1) substrate by a pulsed-laser-deposition combined with a solid-phase-epitaxy technique and they were processed to fabricate a p-NiO/n-ZnO diode. The diodes exhibited a clear rectifying I-V characteristic with an ideality factor of ∼2 and a forward threshold voltage of ∼1 V. Although the photo-responsivity was fairly weak at the zero bias voltage, it was enhanced up to ∼0.3 A W⁻¹ by applying a reverse bias of −6 V under an irradiation of 360-nm light, which is comparable to that of commercial devices.     

Direct current electrical conduction mechanism in plasma polymerized thin films of tetraethylorthosilicate

The plasma polymerized tetraethylorthosilicate (PPTEOS) thin films were deposited on to glass substrates at room temperature by a parallel plate capacitively coupled glow discharge reactor. The current density-voltage (J-V) characteristics of PPTEOS thin films of different thicknesses have been observed at different temperatures in the voltage region from 0.2 to 15 V. In the J-V curves two slopes were observed — one in the lower voltage region and another in the higher voltage region. The voltage dependence of current density at the higher voltage region indicates that the mechanism of conduction in PPTEOS thin films is space charge limited conduction. The carrier mobility, the free carrier density and the total trap density have been calculated out to be about 2.80 × 10^− 15m²V^− 1s^− 1, 1.50 × 10²²m^− 3 and 4.16 × 10³³m^− 3 respectively from the observed data. The activation energies are estimated to be about 0.13 ± 0.05 and 0.46 ± 0.07 eV in the lower and higher temperature regions respectively for an applied voltage of 2 V and 0.09 ± 0.03 and 0.43 ± 0.10 eV in the lower and higher temperature regions respectively for an applied voltage of 14 V. The conduction in PPTEOS may be dominated by hopping of carriers between the localized states at the low temperature and thermally excited carriers from energy levels within the band gap in the vicinity of high temperature.