A Simple Method of Surface Parameter Extraction for Gate Schottky Contact in 4H-SiC MESFETs

We investigate the effects of the surface states on the Schottky contacts in 4H-SiC MESFET. The Ti/Pt/Au gate metal contacts are deposited by electron beam evaporation and patterned by a lift-off process. Based on thermionic theory,a simple parameter extraction method is developed for determination of the surface states in metal/4H-SiC Schottky contacts. The interface state density and interface capacitance are calculated to be 4. 386 × 10^12 cm^-2 · eV^- 1 and 6. 394 × 10^-6 F/cm^2 ,which are consistent with the device＇s terminal characteristics.

Thermal annealing behaviour of Al/Ni/Au multilayer on n-GaN Schottky contacts

Recently GaN-based high electron mobility transistors （HEMTs） have revealed the superior properties of a high breakdown field and high electron saturation velocity. Reduction of the gate leakage current is one of the key issues to be solved for their further improvement. This paper reports that an Al layer as thin as 3 nm was inserted between the conventional Ni/Au Schottky contact and n-GaN epilayers, and the Schottky behaviour of Al/Ni/Au contact was investigated under various annealing conditions by current-voltage （I-V） measurements. A non-linear fitting method was used to extract the contact parameters from the I-V characteristic curves. Experimental results indicate that reduction of the gate leakage current by as much as four orders of magnitude was successfully recorded by thermal annealing. And high quality Schottky contact with a barrier height of 0.875 eV and the lowest reverse-bias leakage current, respectively, can be obtained under 12 min annealing at 450 ℃ in N2 ambience.

Analysis of the inhomogeneous barrier and phase composition of W/4H-SiC Schottky contacts formed at different annealing temperatures

The electrical characteristics of W/4H-SiC Schottky contacts formed at different annealing temperatures have been measured by using current-voltage-temperatures（I-V -T） and capacitance-voltage-temperatures（C-V -T） techniques in the temperature range of 25℃-175℃. The testing temperature dependence of the barrier height（BH） and ideality factor（n） indicates the presence of inhomogeneous barrier. Tung＇s model has been applied to evaluate the degree of inhomogeneity, and it is found that the 400℃ annealed sample has the lowest T0 of 44.6 K among all the Schottky contacts. The barrier height obtained from C-V -T measurement is independent of the testing temperature, which suggests a uniform BH.The x-ray diffraction（XRD） analysis shows that there are two kinds of space groups of W when it is deposited or annealed at lower temperature（≤500℃）. The phase of W2C appears in the sample annealed at 600℃, which results in the low BH and the high T0. The 500℃ annealed sample has the highest BH at all testing temperatures, indicating an optimal annealing temperature for the W/4H-SiC Schottky rectifier for high-temperature application.

On the reverse leakage current of Schottky contacts on free-standing GaN at high reverse biases

In this work, a dislocation-related tunneling leakage current model is developed to explain the temperature-dependent reverse current–voltage（I–V –T） characteristics of a Schottky barrier diode fabricated on free-standing GaN substrate for reverse-bias voltages up to-150 V. The model suggests that the reverse leakage current is dominated by the direct tunneling of electrons from Schottky contact metal into a continuum of states associated with conductive dislocations in GaN epilayer.A reverse leakage current ideality factor, which originates from the scattering effect at metal/GaN interface, is introduced into the model. Good agreement between the experimental data and the simulated I–V curves is obtained.

Alpha particle detector with planar double Schottky contacts directly fabricated on semi-insulating GaN:Fe template

Alpha particle radiation detectors with planar double Schottky contacts(DSC)are directly fabricated on 5-μm-thick epitaxial semi-insulating(SI)GaN:Fe film with resistivity higher than 1×10^(8)Ω·cm.Under 10 V bias,the detector exhibits a low dark current of less than 5.0×10^(-11) A at room-temperature,which increases at higher temperatures.Linear behavior in the semi-log reverse current-voltage plot suggests that Poole-Frenkel emission is the dominant carrier leakage mechanism at high bias.Distinct double-peak characteristics are observed in the energy spectrum of alpha particles regardless of bias voltage.The energy resolution of the SI-GaN based detector is determined to be8.6%at the deposited energy of 1.209 MeV with a charge collection efficiency of81.7%.At a higher temperature of 90℃,the measured full width at half maximum(FWHM)rises to 235 keV with no shift of energy peak position,which proves that the GaN detector has potential to work stably in high temperature environment.This study provides a possible route to fabricate the low cost GaN-based alpha particle detector with reasonable performance.

PEDOT:PSS Schottky contacts on annealed ZnO films

Polycrystalline ZnO and ITO films on SiO2 substrates are prepared by radio frequency （RF） reactive magnetron sputtering. Schottky contacts are fabricated on ZnO films by spin coating with a high conducting polymer, poly（3, 4-ethylenedioxythiophene）： poly（styrenesulfonate） （PEDOT：PSS） as the metal electrodes. The current-voltage mea- surements for samples on unannealed ZnO films exhibit rectifying behaviours with a barrier height of 0.72 eV （n ---- 1.93）. The current for the sample is improved by two orders of magnitude at 1 V after annealing ZnO film at 850 ~C, whose barrier height is 0.75 eV with an ideality factor of 1.12. X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy are used to study the properties of the PEDOT：PSS/ZnO/ITO/SiO2. The results are useful for applications such as metal-semiconductor field-effect transistors and UV photodetectors.

Thermal stability of tungsten and tungsten nitride Schottky contacts to AlGaN/GaN

Thin tungsten nitride （WNx） films were produced by reactive DC magnetron sputtering of tungsten in an Ar-N2 gas mixture. The films were used as Schottky contacts on AlGaN/GaN heterostructures. The Schottky behaviours of WNx contact was investigated under various annealing conditions by current-voltage （I-V） measurements. The results show that the gate leakage current was reduced to 10-6 A/cm2 when the N2 flow is 400 mL/min. The results also show that the WNx contact improved the thermal stability of Schottky contacts, Finally, the current transport mechanism in WNx/AlGaN/GaN Schottky diodes has been investigated by means of I-V characterisation technique at various temperatures between 300 K and 523 K. ATE model with a Gaussian distribution of Schottky barrier heights （SBHs） is thought to be responsible for the electrical behaviour at temperatures lower than 523 K.

Back interface passivation for ultrathin Cu(In,Ga)Se_(2) solar cells with Schottky back contact: A trade-off of electrical effects

Back interface passivation reduces the back recombination of photogenerated electrons, whereas aggravates the blocking of hole transport towards back contact, which complicate the back interface engineering for ultrathin CIGSe solar cells with a Schottky back contact. In this work, theoretical explorations were conducted to study how the two contradictory electrical effects impact cell performance. For ultrathin CIGSe solar cells with a pronounced Schottky potential barrier(E_(h)> 0.2 eV), back interface passivation produces diverse performance evolution trends, which are highly dependent on cell structures and properties. Since a back Ga grading can screen the effect of reduced recombination of photogenerated electrons from back interface passivation, the hole blocking effect predominates and back interface passivation is not desirable. However, when the back Schottky diode merges with the main pn junction due to a reduced absorber thickness,the back potential barrier and the hole blocking effect is much reduced on this occasion. Consequently, cells exhibit the same efficiency evolution trend as ones with an Ohmic contact, where back interface passivation is always advantageous.The discoveries imply the complexity of back interface passivation and provide guidance to manipulate back interface for ultrathin CIGSe solar on TCOs with a pronounced Schottky back contact.

Annealing temperature influence on the degree of inhomogeneity of the Schottky barrier in Ti/4H–SiC contacts

Tung＇s model was used to analyze anomalies observed in Ti/Si C Schottky contacts. The degree of the inhomogeneous Schottky barrier after annealing at different temperatures is characterized by the ‘T0anomaly＇ and the difference（△Φ）between the uniformly high barrier height（Φ0B） and the effective barrier height（Φeff B）. Those two parameters of Ti Schottky contacts on 4H–Si C were deduced from I–V measurements in the temperature range of 298 K–503 K. The increase in Schottky barrier（SB） height（ΦB） and decrease in the ideality factor（n） with an increase measurement temperature indicate the presence of an inhomogeneous SB. The degree of inhomogeneity of the Schottky barrier depends on the annealing temperature, and it is at its lowest for 500-°C thermal treatment. The degree of inhomogeneity of the SB could reveal effects of thermal treatments on Schottky contacts in other aspects.

Influence of Ni Schottky contact thickness on two-dimensional electron-gas sheet carrier concentration of strained Al_(0.3)Ga_(0.7)N/GaN heterostructures

Ni/Au Schottky contacts with thicknesses of either 50（？）/50（？） or 600（？）/2000（？） were deposited on strained Al_（0.3）Ga_（0.7）N/GaN heterostructures.Using the measured C-V curves and I-V characteristics at room temperature,the calculated density of the two-dimensional electron-gas（2DEG） of the 600（？）/2000（？） thick Ni/Au Schottky contact is about 9.13×10^（12） cm^（-2） and that of the 50（？）/50（？） thick Ni/Au Schottky contact is only about 4.77×10^（12） cm^（-2）.The saturated current increases from 60.88 to 86.34 mA at a bias of 20 V as the thickness of the Ni/Au Schottky contact increases from 50（？）/50（？） to 600 A/2000 A.By self-consistently solving Schrodinger＇s and Poisson＇s equations,the polarization charge sheet density of the two samples was calculated,and the calculated results show that the polarization in the AlGaN barrier layer for the thick Ni/Au Schottky contact is stronger than the thin one.Thus,we attribute the results to the increased biaxial tensile stress in the Al_（0.3）Ga_（0.7）N barrier layer induced by the 600（？）/2000（？） thick Ni/Au Schottky contact.

Influence of Schottky drain contacts on the strained AlGaN barrier layer of AlGaN/AlN/GaN heterostructure field-effect transistors

Rectangular Schottky drain AlGaN/AlN/GaN heterostructure field-effect transistors （HFETs） with different gate contact areas and conventional AlGaN/AlN/GaN HFETs as control were both fabricated with same size. It was found there is a significant difference between Schottky drain AlGaN/AlN/GaN HFETs and the control group both in drain series resistance and in two-dimensional electron gas （2DEG） electron mobility in the gate–drain channel. We attribute this to the different influence of Ohmic drain contacts and Schottky drain contacts on the strained AlGaN barrier layer. For conventional AlGaN/AlN/GaN HFETs, annealing drain Ohmic contacts gives rise to a strain variation in the AlGaN barrier layer between the gate contacts and the drain contacts, and results in strong polarization Coulomb field scattering in this region. In Schottky drain AlGaN/AlN/GaN HFETs, the strain in the AlGaN barrier layer is distributed more regularly.

Effects of vacancy and external electric field on the electronic properties of the MoSi_(2)N_(4)/graphene heterostructure

Recently,the newly synthesized septuple-atomic layer two-dimensional(2D)material MoSi_(2)N_(4)(MSN)has attracted attention worldwide.Our work delves into the effect of vacancies and external electric fields on the electronic properties of the MSN/graphene(Gr)heterostructure using first-principles calculation.We find that four types of defective structures,N-in,N-out,Si and Mo vacancy defects of monolayer MSN and MSN/Gr heterostructure are stable in air.Moreover,vacancy defects can effectively modulate the charge transfer at the interface of the MSN/Gr heterostructure as well as the work function of the pristine monolayer MSN and MSN/Gr heterostructure.Finally,the application of an external electric field enables the dynamic switching between n-type and p-type Schottky contacts.Our work may offer the possibility of exceeding the capabilities of conventional Schottky diodes based on MSN/Gr heterostructures.

Al/Ti/4H-SiC Schottky barrier diodes with inhomogeneous barrier heights

This paper investigates the current-voltage （I-V） characteristics of Al/Ti/4H-SiC Schottky barrier diodes （SBDs） in the temperature range of 77 K-500 K, which shows that Al/Ti/4H SiC SBDs have good rectifying behaviour. An abnormal behaviour, in which the zero bias barrier height decreases while the ideality factor increases with decreasing temperature （T）, has been successfully interpreted by using thermionic emission theory with Gaussian distribution of the barrier heights due to the inhomogeneous barrier height at the A1/Ti/4H-SiC interface. The effective Richardson constant A＊ = 154 A/cm2 . K2 is determined by means of a modified Richardson plot In（I0/T2） - （qσ）2/2（κT）2 versus q/kT, which is very close to the theoretical value 146 A/cm2 · K2.

Effect of anode area on the sensing mechanism of vertical GaN Schottky barrier diode temperature sensor

Effect of anode area on temperature sensing ability is investigated for a vertical GaN Schottky-barrier-diode sensor.The current-voltage-temperature characteristics are comparable to each other for Schottky barrier diodes with different anode areas,excepting the series resistance.In the sub-threshold region,the contribution of series resistance on the sensitivity can be ignored due to the relatively small current.The sensitivity is dominated by the current density.A large anode area is helpful for enhancing the sensitivity at the same current level.In the fully turn-on region,the contribution of series resistance dominates the sensitivity.Unfortunately,a large series resistance degrades the temperature error and linearity,implying that a larger anode area will help to decrease the series resistance and to improve the sensing ability.

Schottky forward current transport mechanisms in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs over a wide temperature range

The behavior of Schottky contacts in AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors （HEMTs） is investigated by temperature-dependent current-voltage （T-I-V） measurements from 300 K to 473 K. The ideality factor and barrier height determined based on the thermionic emission （TE） theory are found to be strong functions of temperature, while present a great deviation from the theoretical value, which can be expounded by the barrier height inhomogeneities. In order to determine the forward current transport mechanisms, the experimental data are analyzed using numerical fitting method, considering the temperature-dependent series resistance. It is observed that the current flow at room temperature can be attributed to the tunneling mechanism, while thermionic emission current gains a growing proportion with an increase in temperature. Finally, the effective barrier height is derived based on the extracted thermionic emission component, and an evaluation of the density of dislocations is made from the I-V characteristics, giving a value of 1.49 × 10^7 cm^-2.

Schottky barrier modulation of bottom contact SnO_(2) thin-film transistors via chloride-based combustion synthesis

The enhanced carrier flow at the interface between Au and SnO_(2)semiconductors,which initially form Schottky contacts,is realized using chloride-based combustion synthesis.Chloride-based combustion sys-tems can achieve chlorine(Cl)doping effects as well as conversion to crystalline SnO_(2)films at clearly lower temperatures(∼250℃)than conventional precursors.Due to the Cl doping effect,the high carrier concentration can induce thin potential barriers at the metal/semiconductor(MS)junctions,resulting in carrier injection by tunneling.As a result,compared to conventional SnO_(2)thin-film transistors,the de-vices fabricated by combustion synthesis exhibit significantly improved electrical performance with field-effect mobility of 6.52 cm 2/Vs(∼13 times),subthreshold swing of 0.74 V/dec,and on/offratio of∼10^(7)below 300℃.Furthermore,because of the enhanced tunneling carriers induced by the narrowed barrier width,the Schottky barriers are significantly reduced from 0.83 to 0.29 eV(65%decrease)at 250℃and from 0.42 to 0.17 eV(60%decrease)at 400℃.Therefore,chloride-based combustion synthesis can con-tribute to developing SnO_(2)-based electronics and flexible devices by achieving both high-quality oxide films and improved current flow at the MS interface with low-temperature annealing.

Piezotronic effect enhanced Schottky-contact ZnO micro/nanowire humidity sensors

A ZnO micro/nanowire has been utilized to fabricate Schottky-contacted humidity sensors based on a metal-semiconductor-metal （M-S-M） structure. By means of the piezotronic effect, the signal level, sensitivity and sensing resolution of the humidity sensor were significantly enhanced when applying an external strain. Since a higher Schottky barrier markedly reduces the signal level, while a lower Schottky barrier decreases the sensor sensitivity due to increased ohmic transport, a 0.22% compressive strain was found to optimize the performance of the humidity sensor, with the largest responsivity being 1,240%. The physical mechanism behind the observed mechanical-electrical behavior was carefully studied by using band structure diagrams. This work provides a promising way to significantly enhance the overall performance of a Schottky-contact structured micro/nanowire sensor.

Influences of increasing gate stem height on DC and RF performances of InAlAs/InGaAs InP-based HEMTs

The T-gate stem height of In Al As/In Ga As In P-based high electron mobility transistor(HEMT) is increased from165 nm to 250 nm. The influences of increasing the gate stem height on the direct current(DC) and radio frequency(RF)performances of device are investigated. A 120-nm-long gate, 250-nm-high gate stem device exhibits a higher threshold voltage(Vth) of 60 m V than a 120-nm-long gate devices with a short gate stem, caused by more Pt distributions on the gate foot edges of the high Ti/Pt/Au gate. The Pt distribution in Schottky contact metal is found to increase with the gate stem height or the gate length increasing, and thus enhancing the Schottky barrier height and expanding the gate length,which can be due to the increased internal tensile stress of Pt. The more Pt distributions for the high gate stem device also lead to more obvious Pt sinking, which reduces the distance between the gate and the In Ga As channel so that the transconductance(gm) of the high gate stem device is 70 m S/mm larger than that of the short stem device. As for the RF performances,the gate extrinsic parasitic capacitance decreases and the intrinsic transconductance increases after the gate stem height has been increased, so the RF performances of device are obviously improved. The high gate stem device yields a maximum ft of 270 GHz and fmax of 460 GHz, while the short gate stem device has a maximum ft of 240 GHz and the fmax of 370 GHz.

How to characterize capacitance of organic optoelectronic devices accurately

The selection of circuit model（i.e., parallel or series model） is critical when using a capacitance–frequency and capacitance–voltage technique to probe properties of organic materials and physical processes of organic optoelectronic devices. In the present work, capacitances of ITO/Alq3/Al and ITO/CuPc/Al are characterized by series and parallel model,respectively. It is found that the large series resistance comes from the ITO electrode and results in the inapplicability of the parallel model to measuring the capacitances of organic devices at high frequencies. An equivalent circuit model with consideration of the parasitical inductance of cables is constructed to derive the capacitance, and actual capacitance–frequency spectra of Alq3 and CuPc devices are obtained. Further investigation of temperature-dependent capacitance–frequency and capacitance–voltage characteristics indicates that CuPc and Al form the Schottky contact, the density and ionization energy of impurities in CuPc are obtained. Moreover, more practical guidelines for accurate capacitance measurement are introduced instead of the impedance magnitude, which will be very helpful for the organic community to investigate capacitance-related characteristics when dealing with various organic optoelectronic devices.

Ultraviolet ZnO Photodetectors with High Gain

Fabrication and characterization of metal-semiconductor-metal ultraviolet （MSM UV） photodetector based on ZnO ultra thin （nano scale） films with Pd Schottky contact are reported. The ZnO thin film was grown on glass substrate by thermal oxidation of preeposited zinc films using vacuum deposition technique. With applied voltage in the range from -3V to 3V, the contrast ratio, responsivity, and detectivity for an incident radiation of 0.1 mW at 365 nm wavelength were estimated. The proposed device exhibited a high gain which was attributed to the hole trapping at semiconductor-metal interface. I-V characteristics were studied and the parameters, such as ideality factor, leakage current, resistance-areaproduct, and barrier height, were extracted from the measured data.