An investigation of electrical and structural properties of Ni-germanosilicided Schottky diode

Ni-germanosilicided Schottky barrier diode has been fabricated by annealing the deposited Ni film on strained-Si and characterized electrically in the temperature range of 125 K–300 K. The chemical phases and morphology of the germanosilicided films were studied by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). The Schottky barrier height (_b), ideality factor (n) and interface state density (D_it) have been determined from the current–voltage (I–V) and capacitance–voltage (C–V) characteristics. The current–voltage characteristics have also been simulated using SEMICAD device simulator to model the Schottky junction. An interfacial layer and a series resistance were included in the diode model to achieve a better agreement with the experimental data. It has been found that the barrier height values extracted from the I–V and C–V characteristics are different, indicating the existence of an in-homogeneous Schottky interface. Results are also compared with bulk-Si Schottky diode processed in the same run. The variation of electrical properties between the strained- and bulk-Si Schottky diodes has been attributed to the presence of out-diffused Ge at the interface.