Electrical characteristics of Au and Ag Schottky contacts on n-ZnO

Au and Ag Schottky contacts on the epiready (0001)Zn surface of bulk n-ZnO crystals show Schottky barrier heights of 0.65–0.70 eV from capacitance–voltage measurements, activation energies for reverse saturation currents of 0.3–0.4 eV and saturation current densities ranging from 10−5 A cm−2 on surfaces etched in HCl to 8×10−7 A cm−2 on solvent cleaned samples. The diode ideality factors were in the range 1.6–1.8 under all conditions. The properties of both the Au and the Ag Schottky diodes were degraded by heating in vacuum to temperatures even as low as 365 K. The degradation mechanisms during annealing were different in each case, with the Au showing reaction with the ZnO surface and the Ag contacts showing localized delamination. Mechanical polishing of the ZnO surface prior to contact deposition produced a high-resistivity damaged layer with prominent deep level defects present with activation energies of 0.55 and 0.65 eV.