THE DEPENDENCE OF SCHOTTKY BARRIER HEIGHT ON THE RATIO OF DIFFERENT METAL COMPONENTS

Abstract

In order to understand the variation of the barrier height of different metal-semiconductor contacts, a model for common effective contact (CEC) was proposed. The CEC consists of several primary diodes prepared or formed by different metals on the same semiconductor substrate. The smallest interfacial area of each primary diode was assumed to be the smallest limitation of area on which the Schottky contact's properties exist. The results of the investigation show that all electrical properties - the barrier height especially - of the CEC depend on the ratio of the interfacial area occupied by each metal component in the common effective interface. This result may be applied to the metal compound-semiconductor contact to investigate the variation of potential barrier height, as well as the electrical characteristics of multilayer metal-semiconductor contacts.