Au and Ag electrical contacts to p-ZnSe

The reverse bias break-down voltage and resistance of Au and Ag contacts sputter deposited on nitrogen doped p-type ZnSe, having free hole concentrations in the low to mid 10¹⁷ cm⁻³ range, have been studied. Samples were heat treated over the range of 150—400°C for times of 15—45 min. The minimum break-down voltage for the Au contacts (3.0 V) was found to occur following heat treatments at 350—400°C for 30 min and for Ag contacts (2.3 V) following heat treatments at 150°C for 45 min. Secondary ion mass spectrometry and Auger electron spectroscopy were used to identify changes in the contacts induced by heat treatments. No evidence was found for the formation of new interfacial compounds, but Au diffused into the ZnSe at T >350°C. The data suggest that conduction through the Au/ZnSe contacts was dominated by avalanche breakdown assisted by deep acceptor levels formed by the diffusion of Au into the ZnSe. The results from the Ag contacts suggest that interfacial O forms a highly doped region in the ZnSe leading to conduction dominated by field emission currents.     

Current transport mechanisms and deep level transient spectroscopy of Au/n-Si Schottky barrier diodes

The temperature-dependent electrical characteristics of the Au/n-Si Schottky diodes have been studied in the temperature range of 40-300 K. Current density-voltage (J-V) characteristics of these diodes have been analyzed on the basis of thermionic emission theory with Gaussian distribution model of barrier height. The basic diode parameters such as rectification ratio, ideality factor and barrier height were extracted. Under a reverse bias, the conduction process at low voltage is determined by Schottky emission over a potential barrier but at higher voltage the Poole Frenkel effect is observed. The capacitance-voltage (C-V) features of the Au/n-Si Schottky diodes were characterized in the high frequency of 1 MHz. The barrier heights values obtained from the J-V and C-V characteristics have been compared. It has been seen that the barrier height value obtained from the C-V measurements is higher than that obtained from the J-V measurements at various temperatures. Possible explanations for this discrepancy are presented. Deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) has been used to investigate deep levels in Au/n-Si. Three electron trap centers, having different emission rates and activation energies, have been observed. It is argued that the origin of these defects is of intrinsic nature. A correlation between C-V and DLTS measurements is investigated.     

Annealing temperature effect on electrical and structural properties of Cu/Au Schottky contacts to n-type GaN

Schottky contacts were fabricated on n-type GaN using a Cu/Au metallization scheme, and the electrical and structural properties have been investigated as a function of annealing temperature by current-voltage (I-V), capacitance-voltage (C-V), Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements. The extracted Schottky barrier height of the as-deposited contact was found to be 0.69 eV (I-V) and 0.77 eV (C-V), respectively. However, the Schottky barrier height of the Cu/Au contact slightly increases to 0.77 eV (I-V) and 1.18 eV (C-V) when the contact was annealed at 300 °C for 1 min. It is shown that the Schottky barrier height decreases to 0.73 eV (I-V) and 0.99 eV (C-V), 0.56 eV (I-V) and 0.87 eV (C-V) after annealing at 400 °C and 500 °C for 1 min in N₂ atmosphere. Norde method was also used to extract the barrier height of Cu/Au contacts and the values are 0.69 eV for the as-deposited, 0.76 eV at 300 °C, 0.71 eV at 400 °C and 0.56 eV at 500 °C which are in good agreement with those obtained by the I-V method. Based on Auger electron spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction results, the formation of nitride phases at the Cu/Au/n-GaN interface could be the reason for the degradation of Schottky barrier height upon annealing at 500 °C.     

Electrical characteristics of high performance Au/n-GaN schottky diodes

Au/n-GaN Schottky diodes with the Au electrode deposited at low temperature (LT=77K) have been studied. In comparison, the same chip of GaN epitaxial layer was also used for room temperature Schottky diodes. The low temperature Schottky diodes exhibit excellent performance. Leakage current density as low as 2.55×10⁻¹¹ A·cm⁻² at −2.5 V was obtained in the LT Schottky diodes. The linear region in the current-voltage curve at forward bias extends more than eight orders in current magnitude. Current-voltage-temperature measurements were carried out to study the characteristics of the LT Schottky diodes. A typical barrier height of about 1.32 eV for the LT diode, which is the highest value ever reported, was obtained. The obvious enhancement in electrical performance makes the LT processing a very promising technique for GaN device application although the detailed mechanisms for the LT Au/n-GaN Schottky diodes are still under investigation.     

Transport properties of Gallium Phosphide based Schottky contact with thin insulating layer

The current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of Au/n-GaP Schottky barrier diode was analyzed in wide temperature range of 220–400 K. The conduction mechanism in the low bias region, except for 220 K and 240 K, was identified as tunneling (TN). Nevertheless, thermionic emission (TE) becomes dominant as the voltage increases. The diode parameters were evaluated in this region by TE model incorporating the concept of thin insulating layer. The series resistance (R_s) of the device was found to decrease with increase in temperature. In the 220–320 K temperature range, as reported for most of the Schottky diodes, the zero-bias barrier height (ϕ_b0) decreases and the ideality factor (η) increases with the decrease of temperature. The value of modified Richardson constant (A**) obtained agrees well with the theoretical value. However, in the 320–400 K range, the variation of η and ϕ_b0 with temperature shows opposite trend, which is speculated as due to the change in conduction pattern by the temperature induced modifications at the interface.     

Schottky barrier height studies of Au/4H-SiC(0001) using photoemission and synchrotron radiation

The Schottky barrier height (SBH) of Au on 4H-SiC(0001) has been studied using photoemission and synchrotron radiation. The Au was deposited in-situ on clean and well-ordered √3×√3 R30° reconstructed SiC surfaces prepared by in situ heating at ∼950°C. The SBH was determined from the shift observed in the Si 2p core level, in addition to the initial band bending determined for the clean surface. The results were compared with values obtained by electrical, capacitance-voltage (C-V), and current-voltage (I-V) characterization methods. A favorable comparison between the three independent, SBH determination methods was found.     

Enhancement of the Schottky Barrier Height using a Nitrogen-Rich Tungsten Nitride Thin Film for the Schottky Contacts on AlGaN/GaN Heterostructures

Tungsten, stoichiometric W₂N, and nitrogen-rich W₂N films were used as Schottky contacts on AlGaN/GaN heterostructures. The nitrogen content in the film was controlled by varying the nitrogen-to-argon gas flow ratio during the reactive sputter deposition. The diode with the nitrogen-rich film exhibited a higher Schottky barrier height and the leakage current was comparable to that of the Ni/Au Schottky contact. Analysis suggested that this was due to the increase of the tungsten nitride work function as the result of higher nitrogen incorporation. Furthermore, after 600°C thermal annealing, the diode was stable and showed no change in the leakage current.     

Electrical and interfacial properties of Au/P3HT:PCBM/n-Si Schottky barrier diodes at room temperature

In this study, a gold/poly(3-hexylthiophene):[6,6]-phenyl C61 butyric acid methyl ester/n-type silicon (Au/P3HT:PCBM/n-Si) metal-polymer-semiconductor (MPS) Schottky barrier diode (SBD) was fabricated. To accomplish this, a spin-coating system and a thermal evaporation were used for preparation of a P3HT/PCBM layer system and for deposition of metal contacts, respectively. The forward- and reverse-bias current–voltage (I–V) characteristics of the MPS SBD at room temperature were studied to investigate its main electrical parameters such as ideality factor (n), barrier height (Φ_B), series resistance (R_s), shunt resistance (R_sh), and density of interface states (N_ss). The I–V characteristics have nonlinear behavior due to the effect of R_s, resulting in an n value (3.09) larger than unity. Additionally, it was found that n, Φ_B, R_s, R_sh, and N_ss have strong correlation with the applied bias. All results suggest that the P3HT/PCBM interfacial organic layer affects the Au/P3HT:PCBM/n-Si MPS SBD, and that R_s and N_ss are the main electrical parameters that affect the Au/P3HT:PCBM/n-Si MPS SBD. Furthermore, a lower N_ss compared with that of other types of MPS SBDs in the literature was achieved by using the P3HT/PCBM layer. This lowering shows that high-quality electronic and optoelectronic devices may be fabricated by using the Au/P3HT:PCBM/n-Si MPS SBD.     

Thermal reliability and performances of InGaP schottky contact with Cu/Au and Au/Cu-MSM photodetectors

We report the Schottky performance and thermal reliability of a wide bandgap InGaP layer in contact with a Cu/Au metallic system. An effective Schottky barrier height of 0.97 eV and an ideality factor of 1.21 can be achieved. The thermal reliability of the resultant Schottky barrier diodes was analyzed using Auger electron spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy. The thermal reliability could be main tained up to 450°C. The failure mechanism was attributable to the decomposition of the InGaP layer and the interdiffusion of the chemical elements at higher temperature. Insensitive photoresponsivity with the in cident optical power was found for the resultant Au/Cu-metal-semiconductor-metalphotodetectors (MSM-PDs). According to the measured temporal response of the Au/Cu-MSM-PDs, the operation frequency could be above 10 GHz.     

The determination of the interface-state density distribution from the capacitance-frequency measurements in Au/n-Si schottky barrier diodes

The Au/n-Si Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) with 200-μm (sample D200) and 400-μm (sample D400) bulk thicknesses have been fabricated. The ideality factor and the barrier height have been calculated from the forward-bias current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of D200 and D400 SBDs. The energy distribution of the interface states and relaxation time are found from the capacitance-frequency (C-f) characteristics. The density of interface state and relaxation times have a (nearly constant) slow exponential rise with bias in the range of E_c −0.77 and E_c −0.47 eV from the midgap toward the bottom of the conductance band. Furthermore, the energy distribution of the interface states obtained from C-f characteristics has been compared with that obtained from the forward-bias I-V characteristics.     

Thermally stable Nb and Nb/Au ohmic contacts to p-GaN

We have investigated Nb single and Nb/Au metallization schemes for the formation of thermally stable ohmic contacts to p-GaN. It is shown that the asdeposited Nb and Nb/Au contacts exhibit rectifying behavior. However, both the contacts produce ohmic characteristics when annealed at 850°C. Measurements show that the 850°C Nb/Au and Nb contacts yield a specific contact resistance of 1.9×10⁻⁸ and 2×10⁻² ωcm², respectively. Schottky barrier heights are found to decrease with increasing annealing temperature. A comparison of the XRD and electrical results shows that the formation of gallide phases such as Ga-Nb and Ga-Au compounds, play a role in forming ohmic contacts. Atomic force microscopy results show that the surface morphology of the Nb contacts is fairly stable up to 850°C, while the Nb/Au contacts are slightly degraded upon annealing at 850°C.     

碲化镉肖特基势垒的温度依赖关系

本文通过对Au/n-CdTe肖特基二极管I-V-T测量得出:在室温附近,势垒高度随温度升高而线性增加,增加速率约为 9 ×10~(-4)eV/K.这一结果与 Hattori 等对InP的研究结果一致,     

Au/Ge/Ni ohmic contacts to n-Type InP

The relationship between the electrical properties and microstructure for annealed Au/Ge/Ni contacts to n-type InP, with an initial doping level of 10¹⁷ cm^-3, have been studied. Metal layers were deposited by electron beam evaporation in the following sequence: 25 nm Ni, 50 nm Ge, and 40 nm Au. Annealing was done in a nitrogen atmosphere at 250-400‡C. The onset of ohmic behavior at 325‡C corresponded to the decomposition of a ternary Ni-In-P phase at the InP surface and the subsequent formation of Ni₂P plus Au₁₀In₃, producing a lower barrier height at the InP interface. This reaction was driven by the inward diffusion of Au and outward diffusion of In. Further annealing, up to 400‡C, resulted in a decrease in contact resistance, which corresponded to the formation of NiP and Au₉ln₄ from Ni₂P and Au₁₀In₃,respectively, with some Ge doping of InP also likely. A minimum contact resistance of 10^-7 Ω-cm² was achieved with a 10 s anneal at 400‡C.     

难熔金属与n-GaAs的欧姆接触特性

用磁控溅射系统和快速合金化法制备了Mo/W/Ti/Au多层金属和n-GaAs材料的欧姆接触,在溅射金属层之前分别用HCl溶液和(NH4)2S溶液对n-GaAs材料的表面进行处理．用传输线法对比接触电阻进行了测试,并利用俄歇电子能谱（AES）、X射线衍射图谱（XRD）对接触的微观结构进行了分析．结果表明,用(NH4)2S溶液对n-GaAs材料表面进行处理后,比接触电阻最小;在700℃快速合金化后获得最低的比接触电阻,约为4.5×10－6Ω·cm2．这是由于(NH4)2S溶液钝化处理后降低了GaAs的表面态密度,消除了费米能级钉扎效应,从而改善了难熔金属与GaAs的接触特性．     

A detailed comparative study on the main electrical parameters of Au/n-Si and Au/PVA:Zn/n-Si Schottky barrier diodes

We have fabricated Au/n-Si and Au/PVA:Zn/n-Si Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) to investigate the effect of organic interfacial layer on the main electrical characteristics. Zn doped poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA:Zn) was successfully deposited on n-Si substrate by using the electrospinning system and surface morphology of PVA:Zn was presented by SEM images. The current–voltage (I–V) characteristics of these SBDs have been investigated at room temperature. The experimental results show that interfacial layer enhances the device performance in terms of ideality factor (n), zero-bias barrier height (Φ_B0), series resistance (R_s), and shunt resistance (R_sh) with values of 1.38, 0.75 eV, 97.64 Ω, and 203 MΩ whereas those of Au/n-Si SBD are found as 1.65, 0.62 eV, 164.15 Ω and 0.597 MΩ, respectively. Also, this interfacial layer at metal/semiconductor (M/S) interface leads to a decrease in the magnitude of leakage current and density of interface states (N_ss). The values of N_ss range from 1.36×10¹² at E_c—0.569 eV to 1.35×10¹³ eV^?1 cm^?2 at E_c—0.387 eV for Au/PVA:Zn/n-Si SBD and 3.34×10¹² at E_c—0.560 eV to 1.35×10¹³ eV^?1 cm^?2 at E_c—0.424 eV for Au/n-Si SBD. The analysis of experimental results reveals that the existence of PVA:Zn interfacial layer improves the performance of such devices.     

Gaussian distribution of inhomogeneous barrier height in tungsten/4H-SiC (000-1) Schottky diodes

The Gaussian distribution model have been used to analyze the anomalies observed in tungsten (W)/4H-SiC current voltage characteristics due to the barrier inhomogeneities that prevail at the metal-semiconductor interface. From the analysis of the forward I-V characteristics measured at elevated temperatures within the range of 303-448 K and by the assumption of a Gaussian distribution (GD) of barrier heights (BHs), a mean barrier height of 1.277 eV, a zero-bias standard deviation σ₀ = 0.092 V and a factor T₀ of 21.69 K have been obtained. Furthermore the modified Richardson plot according to the Gaussian distribution model resulted in a mean barrier height and a Richardson constant (A^∗) of 1.276 eV and 145 A/cm² K², respectively. The A^∗ value obtained from this plot is in very close agreement with the theoretical value of 146 A/cm² K² for n-type 4H-SiC. Therefore, it has been concluded that the temperature dependence of the forward I-V characteristics of the W/4H-SiC contacts can be successfully explained on the basis of a thermionic emission conduction mechanism with Gaussian distributed barriers. In addition, a comparison is made between the present results and those obtained previously assuming the pinch-off model.     

Current transport and formation of energy structures in narrow Au/n-GaAs Schottky diodes

The current transport and formations of potential barrier height in narrow Au/n-GaAs Schottky diodes (SD) with a contact surface in length of 200 μm, width of 1 and 4 μm have been investigated.It was determined that features of current transport are in good agreements with the thermionic emission theory in the forward bias as like high-quality conventional (flat) SD. Features of current transport in the reverse bias also is well described by thermionic emission theory, but it has specific features unlike I–V characteristics flat SD.Forward bias of narrow SD current–voltage (I–U) characteristics are represented by straight lines in semi-logarithmic scale in a wide range, nearly nine order of current up to 0.7 V with near unit ideality factor. In the beginning of the reverse voltage, the current practically was extremely low, by increasing in voltage the current jump in steps approximately for 3–4 order in voltage of 3–4 V, then current increases linear for 3–5 order in semi-logarithmic scale by increasing in voltage up to nearly 7 V.Numerical values of parameters such as the saturation currents, the operating barrier height, ideality factor, dimensionless factor are obtained. The correlations between ideality factor and dimensionless factor were meaningful.The energy diagrams of narrow SD have been drawn in absence and presence of forward and reverse voltage. It is found that electronic processes in narrow SD are well described by energy model of real narrow metal–semiconductor contacts. The additional electric field arising in near contact area of the semiconductor because of creating contact potential difference between contact surface and to it adjoining free surfaces of the metal and semiconductor.     

Effects of PCBM concentration on the electrical properties of the Au/P3HT:PCBM/n-Si (MPS) Schottky barrier diodes

In this study, the gold/poly(3-hexylthiophene):[6,6]-phenyl C61 butyric acid methyl ester/n-type silicon (Au/P3HT:PCBM/n-Si) metal–polymer–semiconductor (MPS) Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) were investigated in terms of the effects of PCBM concentration on the electrical parameters. The forward and reverse bias current–voltage (I–V) characteristics of the Au/P3HT:PCBM/n-Si MPS SBDs fabricated by using the different P3HT:PCBM mass ratios were studied in the dark, at room temperature. The main electrical parameters, such as ideality factor (n), barrier height (Φ_B0), series resistance (R_s), shunt resistance (R_sh), and density of interface states (N_ss) were determined from I–V characteristics for the different P3HT:PCBM mass ratios (2:1, 6:1 and 10:1) used diodes. The values of n, R_s, Φ_B0, and N_ss were reduced, while the carrier mobility and current were increased, by increasing the PCBM concentration in the P3HT:PCBM organic blend layer. The ideal values of electrical parameters were obtained for 2:1 P3HT:PCBM mass ratio used diode. This shows that the electrical properties of MPS diodes strongly depend on the PCBM concentration of the P3HT:PCBM organic layer. Moreover, increasing the PCBM concentration in P3HT:PCBM organic blend layer improves the quality of the Au/P3HT:PCBM/n-Si (MPS) SBDs which enables the fabrication of high-quality electronic and optoelectronic devices.     

Schottky diode performance of an Au/Pd/GaAs device fabricated by deposition of monodisperse palladium nanoparticles over a p-type GaAs substrate

Au/Pd/p-GaAs Schottky diodes were fabricated by simple assembly of monodisperse Pd nanoparticles on a p-type GaAs semiconductor. Monodisperse 5-nm Pd nanoparticles were synthesized via reduction of palladium(II) acetylacetonate in oleylamine using a borane tert-butylamine complex. The Au/Pd/p-GaAs Schottky diodes provided a barrier height of 0.68 eV, which is higher than room-temperature values reported in the literature. A double distribution was observed for the barrier height for the Schottky diodes from I–V–T measurements. A decrease in temperature lowered the zero-bias barrier height and increased the ideality factor. These observations were ascribed to barrier height inhomogeneities at the interface that altered the barrier height distribution. Values of the series resistance obtained by the Norde method decreased with increasing temperature. Understanding the temperature dependence of the current–voltage characteristics of Au/Pd/p-GaAs devices might be helpful in improving the quality of Pd deposited on GaAs for future device technologies.     

AlxGa1-xN/GaN肖特基二极管的高温特性

High-temperature characteristics of the metal/AlxGa1-xN/GaN M/S/S （M/S/S） diodes have been studied with current-voltage （I-V） and capacitance-voltage （C-V） measurements at high temperatures. Due to the presence of the piezoelectric polarization field and a quantum well at the AlxGa1-xN/GaN interface, the AlxGal-xN/GaN diodes show properties distinctly different from those of the AlxGa1-xN diodes. For the AlxGa1-xN/GaN diodes, an increase in temperature accompanies an increase in barrier height and a decrease in ideality factor, while the AlxGa1-xN diodes are opposite. Furthermore, at room temperature, both reverse leakage current and reverse breakdown voltage are superior for the AlxGa1-xN/GaN diodes to those for the AlxGa1-xN diodes.