Temperature-induced I–V characteristics of Ni/Ta/TaN/ p -Si/Al Schottky diodes with metallic tantalum nitride interfacial layer

The Ni/Ta/TaN/p-Si/Al Schottky diodes incorporating TaN interfacial layers with different thicknesses were fabricated with TaN thicknesses of 5, 10, 15, and 20 nm, alongside a reference diode without a TaN interlayer. The voltage-dependent current measurements were performed at temperatures ranging from 40 to 320 K. The extracted Schottky barrier height (SBH), ideality factor (n), and series resistance (Rs) demonstrated that introducing a TaN interlayer significantly enhanced the diode performance. The SBH increased from 0.558 to 0.714 eV, while the ideality factor n improved from 1.486 for the reference diode to 1.112 for the diode with a 10 nm TaN interlayer at 300 K. Among the investigated diode parameters, the 10 nm TaN interlayer provided the most favorable performance. The diode with the 10-nm TaN interlayer maintained approximately the same integrity as those with other TaN thicknesses from 5 to 20 nm up to 200 K. The Rs values of the diodes were found to be relatively close to each other throughout the measurement temperature range and exhibited strong temperature dependence, decreasing significantly from 300 to 100 K and then increasing with further decreasing temperature.