Transport Properties of Metal-Silicon Schottky Barriers

Schottky barrier diodes were fabricated by vacuum depositions of Au, Ag, and Cu onto chemically cleaned silicon surfaces and their current-voltage and capacitance-voltage characteristics were investigated in details over a temperature range between 100°K and 350°K. The current-voltage characteristics obtained are of nearly ideal Schottky barrier type and the current transport in the barriers is dominated by the thermionic emission and the image force effect. The temperature coefficient of the barrier height, the forward “ n ”, and the image force dielectric constant were found to be (2.67±0.60)×10 -4 eV/°K, 1.01∼1.02, and 11.5 ε 0 respectively. The departure from the ideal characteristics was explained by the generation-recombination current in the barrier region.