Journal of Electron Devices, Vol. 8, 2010, pp.

286-292

JED [ISSN: 1682 -3427 ]

Received 30 September 2010, accepted 18 October 2010

Journal of Electron Devices www.jeldev.org

Temperature Dependence of I-V Characteristics of Au/n-Si Schottky Barrier Diode

Rajinder Sharma Department of Engineering Physics, Model Institute of Engg. & Technology, University of Jammu (India). e-mail: rbasotra@yahoo.com Abstract: The current-voltage characteristics of Au/n-Si Schottky barrier diodes were measured in a wide temperature range of 70-310 K. The forward current-voltage characteristics have been analyzed on the basis of standard thermionic emission (TE) theory and assuming Gaussian distribution (single) of barrier height. Findings are investigated to explore TFE-mechanism with high value of characteristic energy. The high values of ideality factor are analysed for interfacial layer and density of interface state. The temperature dependence of ideality factor was found to obey the To-effect and the true barrier height (b) obtained is almost independent of temperature. 1.0 Introduction For an ideal Schottky diode, the current flow is only due to thermionic emission mechanism and the ideality factor should be equal to unity (=1). However, due to various factors such as device temperature, dopant concentration, device area, density of interface states, structural properties of interface etc., the current-voltage characteristics of Schottky contact exhibit deviations from TE-mechanism with temperature dependent ideality factor [13,9]. Generally, the ideality factor increases with decrease in temperature, the phenomena is commonly referred as To-effect and was first proposed by Padovani and Sumner [10]. Whereas, the barrier height for these diodes is found to be decreases with fall in operating temperature. It is shown for the To-effect that the error may be connected either with the lateral inhomogeneity of barrier height [11, 12], or with the role of recombination and tunneling current components [12], or with the anomalous high level of thermionic field emission dominating the current [13]. In the present work, an attempt has been made to study the anomalies observed in the temperature dependent I-V characteristics of Au/n-Si Schottky contact on the basis of well established models mentioned above. 2.0 Experimental The Schottky diodes used in this study were fabricated on n-type Si wafer of (100) orientation and n/n+ configuration. The nregion comprising of 8.2 m thick epitaxial nlayer (ND=1.351015cm-3) of resistivity 2.6 cm over the heavily doped n+ silicon substrate. Prior to fabrication, sample was first degreased with soap solution and then thoroughly cleaned with organic solvents. Finally, the sample was etched using dilute HF (HF:H2O1:10) followed by washing in deionized water. Ohmic contact was made by depositing 200 nm thick Al layer and than annealed in vacuum (10-5 mbar) at 450 C for 30 minutes. Sample was again cleaned from the epitaxial n-layer (i.e. front) side by using the cleaning processes as mentioned above. Finally, a gold (Au) film of thickness 80 nm was deposited on epitaxial n-layer. All depositions were carried out in a HHV coating unit using thermal evaporation source under vacuum 510-6 mbar. For I-V measurements, diodes were mounted and bounded on To-39 header. The forward I-V characteristics from 70-310K

Current (Amp)

were carried out by using an automated measurement setup consisting of voltage source unit (Kethleys) model-230, electrometer (Kethleys) model-617, PC Pentium-4 and closed cycle helium cryostat. The temperature was within 0.5K during data acquisition. 3.0 Results and discussion 3.1 Forward I-V Characteristics: The forward current-voltage characteristics of Au/n-Si Schottky diode in the temperature range 70-310K (shown in Fig. 1) are exhibiting linearity over several order of current. At first the experimental data is analyzed on the basis of thermionic emission theory, given by [1] qV (1) I = I S exp kT 1 q bo and I S = A** ST 2 exp (2) kT where IS is the saturation current, bo is the zero-bias barrier height, A** is the effective Richardson constant, S is the diode area, T is the temperature in Kelvin, k is the Boltzmanns constant, q is the electronic charge and is the ideality factor which describes the deviation of the practical diodes from the pure thermionic emission theory. The values of saturation current (IS) and ideality factor are obtained from the linear portion of ln(I) vs V plot at various temperature. The values of zero-bias barrier height at each temperature are determined from saturation current (IS) using eq. (2) with A**=1.12106 Am-2K-2 and diode area 3.8510-7 m2. The variation of and bo as a function of temperature is shown in Fig. 2. Plot shows that barrier height is exhibiting decreasing trend (form 0.79V at 310K to 0.27V at 70K) with decrease in operating temperature, whereas the ideality factor is found to increases (from 1.25 at 310K to 3.53 at 70K) with decrease in temperature. 287

1E-5

i 310K i 70K

1E-6

1E-7
i310K i290K i270K i250K i230K i210K i190K i170K i150K i130K i110K i90K i70K

1E-8

1E-9

1E-10

0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

Voltage (V)

Fig-1: Current-Voltage characteristics of the Au/n-Si (100) Schottky barrier diode in the temperature range of 70-310K.

Another way to determine the value of barrier height is the Arrhenius plot. Thus eq. (2) can be rewritten as q I ln S2 = ln A** S bo kT T

(3)
5

1.2

1.0

0.8

Barrier Height

Ideality Factor

0.6

0.4 2 0.2

0.0 1 50 100 150 200 250 300 350

Temperature (K)

barrier height ( bo ), true barrier height (b) and ideality factor () as a function of temperature.

Fig-2: Variation of zero-bias barrier height (bo), mean

Fig. 3 shows ln(IS/T2) vs 1/T plot exhibiting linearity in the temperature range of 310-230

K only. A best linear fit to experimental data in the temperature range 310-230 K yield A** = 1.32 Am-2K-2 and bo= 0.45 V. This value of A** is about six order of magnitude lower than its theoretical value [2]. So both, the values of A** and bo obtained above are not in consistence with the reported values for Au/nSi Schottky diodes. Therefore, increase in and decrease in bo with decrease in operating temperature along with non-linearity in the activation energy plot and lower values of A** indicate the deviation of I-V characteristics from thermionic emission theory. This is more likely due to the literally inhomogeneous barrier height which becomes more pronounce as the temperature decreases [1]. Because the electrons possesses a weak kinetic energy at low temperature and they prefer to pass through low barrier [14]. Since the current transport across the MS interface is temperature activated process at low temperature, it will be dominated by current flowing through patches of low barrier height and large ideality factor [15]. 3.2 Barrier Inhomogeneities: For the temperature dependence of barrier height and ideality factor, lateral inhomogeneities are assumed to model the interface of Schottky diode which for the case of Gaussian distribution, lead to equations (4) and (5) for ap and ap respectively [5,7]. 2 q o ap = bo (4) 2kT

1000/T
3 -30 4 5 6 7 8 -30

-35

-35

ln(Is/T )

ln(IS/T )

-40

-40

-45

(a) (b)

-45

-50 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16

-50

1000/T

Fig-3: Plot of ln(IS/T2)vs 1000/T (curve-a) and ln(IS/T2) vs 1000/T (curve-b) of Au/n-Si (100) Schottky diode. Continuous curve represent data obtained using eq. (14) with a=0.55, b=205 and =-1.4810-5 V/K, A**= 0.9106 Am-2K-2 and b(0)=1.02V

q = (1 ) + o (5) ap kT where bo and o are the zero-bias mean barrier height and zero-bias standard deviation while and are bias coefficient of mean barrier height and standard deviation respectively. According to eq. (4), ap vs 1/T plot should be a straight line with slope and intercept at the ordinate yielding the value of o and bo . 1

But the analysis show the experimental data is linear in the temperature range 310-150 K with bo = 1.03 V and o = 0.11 V. Further, zero-bias barrier height can be simulated using eq. (4) for calculated values of bo and o, and results are presented in the Fig. 2 (continuous curve along with experimental data). Also, the values of bo are calculated at each temperature by correcting zero-bias barrier height for observed values of o, shown in Fig. 2 (open circle). Also, for the Schottky contacts having barrier height distribution, the 1/ap vs 1/T plot, eq. (5), should be fitted into a straight line. It is found, the experimental data is again linear in the temperature range 310-150 K. with =0.0037 V and =0.054 V. The value of can be simulated, using above calculated values of o, and , from eq. (5) and results are presented in Fig. 2 (continuous curve along with experimental data). Further, under the assumption of Gaussian distribution of BH, Richardson plot can be modified on combining eq. (2) and (4). Thus one can write [7]

288

2 2 q I q o = ln( A** S ) bo (6) ln S2 2 2 kT T 2k T 2 2 1 I q o plot Thus ln S 2 2 2 vs T 2k T T should be a straight line with slope and intercept at the ordinate giving the values of bo and A**. Such a plot is shown in Fig. 7, exhibiting linearity in the temperature range of 310-150K and yielding values of bo =1.02 and A** = 0.6106 Am-2K-2. This value of A** is close to the reported value for n-type silicon [2]. Thus, from above discussion and Fig. 2, and 7 one can easily infer that the Gaussian distribution function is applicable at higher temperature range (i.e. 310-150 K) only. 3.3 Thermionic Field Emission: The parameter that determines the relative importance of tunneling and thermionic emission is given by [1] h ND * E oo = 4 me s

of temperature together with the theoretically predicted curve given by eq. (8) with Eoo = 0.188 meV. From figure it is observed that the experimental data is exhibiting a higher value of characteristic energies. In order to confirm the higher value of characteristic energies, another method used, requires plotting of the theoretically calculated values of vs temperature on 1/ vs 1000/T plot [8].
35

**** experimental data

30

25

Eo=kT/q

20

15

10

5 50 100 150 200 250 300 350

Temperature

ND = 18.5 10 (7) m eV r r * where m e = ( m r m o ) is the effective mass of the electron, s = ( r o ) is the permittivity of the semiconductor and ND is the donor concentration. In present case ND = 1.351021 m-3 and for n-Si with mr = 1.1 and r = 11.9 eq. (7) yield the value of Eoo = 0.188 meV. Also, the current-voltage relationship in case of tunnelling through the barrier is of the form [1]
15

1/ 2

0.8

**** Experimental data Eoo=20.37 ( 0.001) meV

(b)

0.7

=0.076 ( 0.011) V

0.6

1/

0.5

0.4

0.3

V I t = I to exp E O

qV 1 exp kT

0.2 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16

1000/T

with

qE E O = EOO coth OO (8) kT Thus, the ln [It/{1-exp (-qV/kT)}] vs V plot should yield a straight line with slope giving Eo and intercept at zero-bias the Ito (saturation current). Fig. 4(a) is a plot of Eo as a function

Fig-4: a) Plot of Eo vs Temp. assuming TFE. Experimental data indicating high value of characteristic energy than predicated by the theory and estimated using eq. (5). b) Plot showing the variation of inverse of ideality factor as a function of inverse temperature. Continuous curve obtained using eq. (9) yielding Eoo = 20.37 meV and = 0.076.

289

The following relation was used to generate such theoretical plot

T3/2 and value of = 3.2 nm. This shows the device under test is not pure MS but MIS and this may be the possible cause for the increase in characteristics energy (Eoo).
4.5

qEO kT (1 )

(9)
4.
4.0

where is the bias dependence of the barrier height. Fig. 4(b) shows, the experimental data points matches closely to the continuous curve with Eoo = 20.4 meV and = 0.076 V (nonlinear curve fitting method was used to obtained this curve). Therefore diode under test certainly exhibit high characteristic energies not expected for the doping concentration range used in the present case, implying a conduction mechanism dominated by TFE. The high characteristics energy has been related to several effects such as the density of interface states and the electric field present on the surface of semiconductor [6]. The electric field near the semiconductor surface can be increased by mechanisems such as surface roughness at the periphery, local pile-up dopants, geometrical inhomogeneities due to crystal defect, and the presence of a relative thick interfacial insulating layer between metal and semiconductor [6]. For MS contact with thick interfacial insulating layer, the ideality factor can be expressed as [16]

3.5

**** Experimental Data 1/2 1. T 1 2. T 3/2 3. T 2 4. T

Ideality factor

3.0

2.5

2.0

1.5

1.
1.0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350

Temperature

Fig-5: Variation of ideality factor as a function of temperature for different temperature dependence of interface state density with = 3.2 nm.

3.4 To-Effect: The variation of ideality factor as a function of temperature shown in Fig. 2 is referred as To-effect [10] and can be expressed as =1+To/T. More generally it can be expressed as [4]

+ qN SS = i i

=a+
(10)

b T

(11)

Where Nss is the density of interface state, is the thickness of interfacial layer and i is the interfacial layer permittivity. Fig. 5 shows the variation of ideality factor as a function of temperature along with theoretical curves generated by using eq. (10). For this the temperature dependence of Nss is assumed same as that for energy bands in solid [16]. The experimental data is in agreement with curve having temperature dependence of Nss as

where a and b are two temperature independent parameters. Thus, vs 1/T plot shown in Fig. 6, obeying the description of eq. (11) with a = 0.55 and b = 205 K. Also, nonlinear behaviour of ln(IS/T2) vs 1000/T plot at low temperature is because of extra current contribution arising due to apparent lowering in the barrier height. In such situation one can calculate new values of the zero-bias barrier height, called true barrier height (b), at each temperature by incorporating in the expression for saturation current as [3,4]

290

 bn =

kT

A ST ln I q S
** 2

eq. (11) & (13) the eq. (2) can be expressed as [4] (12)
ln
q 1 q (0) IS = aln(A**) + b bln(A**) (14) 2 k T k T
0 -50 -25

3.5

a=0.554 b=204.92

3.0

Ideality factor

2.5

-100

ln(IS/T )-(q o /2k T )

2 2

-50

ln(I /T )

2.0

-150 -75

1.5

-200 -100

1.0 0.002

-250

0.004

0.006

0.008

0.010
-1

0.012

0.014

0.016

10

12

14

16

Temperature (K )

1000/T

Fig-6: The vs 1/T plot for Au/n-Si (100) schottky barrier diode, exhibiting linearity over entire temperature range.

Fig-7: Plot of ln(JS/T2)-(q2o2/2k2T2) vs 1000/T (curvea) and ln(JS/T2) vs 1000/T (curve-b) for Au/n-Si (100) Schottky barrier diode.

Hackam and Harrop [3], and later Bhuiyan [4] found that the barrier height obtained in this manner is same as that obtained from the C-V measurement and exhibit the temperature dependence in the manner like energy band gap. The variation of this new barrier height (b) as a function of temperature is shown in Fig. 2 (stars). Let us consider the temperature dependence of barrier height as [4]

This means, ln(IS/T2) vs 1/T plot should be a straight line with intercept at the ordinate yielding the value of A** while slope will give the value of b(0). Such a plot is shown in Fig. 7. Here all the data points are exhibiting a straight line over entire temperature range with b(0) = 1.02 V while A** = 0.9106 Am-2K-2. The value of A** obtained is also quite close to the reported value of 1.12106 Am-2K-2 for ntype Silicon [2].
4.0 Conclusion Forward current-voltage characteristics of the Au/n-Si Schottky barrier diodes were studied in the temperature range of 70-310 K. The high value of characteristic energy indicates, observed findings cannot be explained on the basis of thermionic emission (TE) mechanism alone and were attributed to the possibility of thermionic field-emission (TFE) as conduction mechanism. It is found, the temperature dependence of is due to the

b (T ) = b (0) T

(13)

The best fit to experimental data, shown in Fig. 2 (dotted line), yield b(0) = 1.03 V and = -(1.48 3.9)10-5 V/K. Interestingly, the fitted curve is almost parallel to the x-axis and all the data points lies on this curve. So, the barrier height obtained in this way is almost independent of temperature. Further, on the basis of above assumption and in the light of

291

presence of interfacial layer and strong temperature dependence of NSS. Investigation shows the occurrence of Gaussian distribution of barrier heights is in the temperature range of 310-150 K only. The variation of mean barrier height (modified) obtained on the basis of Gaussian distribution, in the temperature range of 310-150 K, is same as that of the true barrier height (b) which is almost independent of temperature over the entire temperature range. The value of Richardson constant obtained using new Richardson plot was found to be 0.9106 Am-2K-2 and is in close agreement with the reported value of 1.12106 Am-2K-2.
5.0 References [1] E.H. Rhoderick and R.H. Williams; Metal Semiconductor Contacts, Clarendon Press, Oxford (1988). [2] S.M. Sze; Semiconductor Devices Physics and Technology, Wiley New York (1985). [3] R. Hackam and P. Harrop; IEEE Trans. Electron. Devices 19, 1231, (1972). [4] A.S. Bhuiyan, A. Martinez and D. Esteve; Thin Solid Films 161, 93 (1988). [5] J. H. Werner and H. H. Guttler; J. Appl. Phys. 69, 1522 (1991). [6] Zs. J. Horvath; Mater. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. 260, 367 (1992). [7] S. Chand and J. Kumar: J. Appl. Phys. 80, 288 (1996). [8] Zs.J. Horvath; Inter. Conf. On Advanced Semiconductor Devices and Microsystems; Worsaw, Poland, 263(1996). [9] O.S. Anilturk, R. Turan; Solid State Electron; 44, 41 (2000). [10] F.A. Padovani, G.G. Sumner; J. Appl. Phys.; 36, 3744 (1965). [11] M. O. Aboelfotoh; J. Appl. Phys. 61, 2558 (1978).

[12]

[13] [14]

[15] [16]

V. W. L. Chin, M. A. Green and J.W.V. Storey; Solid-state Electron. 36, 1107 (1993). M. O. Aboelfotoh and K.N. Tu; Phys. Rev. B, 34, 2311 (1986). H. Benmaza, B. Akkal, H. Abid, J.M. Bluet, M. Anani and Z. Bensaad, Microelectron J., 39, 80 (2008). Songul Duman, Semicond. Sci. Technol., 23, 075042 (2008). S. Chand and S Bala, Physica B, 390, 179 (2007).

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