Formation and Schottky barrier height of metal contacts to β-SiC

• Published in: Applied physics letters 1990-02, Vol.56 (6), p.557-559
• Main Authors: WALDROP, J. R, GRANT, R. W
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties; Electronic structure and electrical properties of surfaces, interfaces, thin films and low-dimensional structures; Exact sciences and technology; Physics; Surface double layers, schottky barriers, and work functions
• ISSN: 0003-6951; 1077-3118
• DOI: 10.1063/1.102744

Formation of Schottky barrier contacts to n-type β-SiC(100) was systematically investigated for several metals with various physical and chemical properties. The metals (Pd, Au, Co, Ti, Ag, Tb, and Al) were deposited onto oxygen terminated (∼1 monolayer) surfaces. Metal/β-SiC interface chemistry and Schottky barrier height φB during contact formation were obtained by x-ray photoemission spectroscopy; the corresponding electrical properties of thick contacts were characterized by capacitance-voltage and current-voltage methods. The metal/β-SiC interface is unreactive at room temperature. X-ray photoemission spectroscopy and electrical measurements demonstrate that these metal contacts exhibit a wide range of φB , 0.95–0.16 eV; within this range an individual contact φB value depends strongly on the metal work function in general accord with the Schottky–Mott limit.