CURRENT-VOLTAGE CHARACTERISTICS of THERMALLY ANNEALED Ni/ n -GaAs SCHOTTKY CONTACTS

Abstract

The Schottky barrier type Ni/n-GaAs contacts fabricated by us were thermally annealed at 600°C and 700°C for 1min. The apparent barrier height Pdbl;ap and ideality factor of the diodes were calculated from the forward bias current-voltage characteristic in 60-320K range. The Pdbl;ap values for the nonannealed and 600°C and 700°C annealed diodes were obtained as 0.80, 0.81 and 0.67eV at 300K, respectively. Thus, it has been concluded that the reduced barrier due to the thermal annealing at 700°C promises some device applications. The current preferentially flows through the lowest barrier height (BH) with the temperature due to the BH inhomogeneities. Therefore, it was seen that the Pdbl;ap versus (2kT)-1 plots for the nonannealed and annealed diodes showed the linear behavior according to Gaussian distributions. © 2018 World Scientific Publishing Company.