Schottky barriers are often formed at the semiconductor/metal contacts and affect the electrical behaviour of semiconductor devices. In particular, Schottky barriers have been playing a major role in the investigation of the electrical properties of mono and two-dimensional nanostructured materials, although their impact on the current-voltage characteristics has been frequently neglected or misunderstood. In this work, we propose a single equation to describe the current-voltage characteristics of two-terminal semiconductor devices with Schottky contacts. We apply the equation to numerically simulate the electrical behaviour for both ideal and non-ideal Schottky barriers. The proposed model can be used to directly estimate the Schottky barrier height and the ideality factor. We apply it to perfectly reproduce the experimental current-voltage characteristics of ultrathin molybdenum disulphide or tungsten diselenide nanosheets and tungsten disulphide nanotubes. The model constitutes a useful tool for the analysis and the extraction of relevant transport parameters in any two-terminal device with Schottky contacts.
An aluminum nitride (AlN) Schottky barrier diode (SBD) was fabricated on a nonpolar AlN crystal grown on tungsten substrate by physical vapor transport. The Ni/Au-AlN SBD features a low ideality factor n of 3.3 and an effective Schottky barrier height (SBH) of 1.05 eV at room temperature. The ideality factor n decreases and the effective SBH increases at high temperatures. The temperature dependences of n and SBH were explained using an inhomogeneous model. A mean SBH of 2.105 eV was obtained for the Ni-AlN Schottky junction from the inhomogeneity analysis of the current-voltage characteristic…
The reverse leakage current through a Schottky barrier transitions from a thermionic-emission dominated regime to a barrier-tunneling dominated regime as the surface electric field increases. In this study, we evaluate such transition electric field ($E_{\rm T}$) in $β$-Ga$_{2}$O$_{3}$ using a numerical reverse leakage model. $E_{\rm T}$ is found to have very weak dependence on the doping concentration and barrier height, thus a near-universal temperature dependence suffices and is given by a simple empirical expression in Ga$_{2}$O$_{3}$. With the help of a field-plate design, we observed exp…
In this paper, the electrical behavior of tungsten carbide (WC) Schottky barrier on 4H-SiC was investigated. First, a statistical current-voltage (I-V) analysis in forward bias, performed on a set of equivalent diodes, showed a symmetric Gaussian-like distribution of the barrier heights after annealing at 700°C, where a low Schottky barrier height ($Φ$B=1.05 eV) and an ideality factor n=1.06 were measured. The low value of the barrier height makes such a WC contact an interesting candidate to reduce the conduction losses in 4H-SiC Schottky diodes. A deeper characterization has been carried out…
The negative differential resistance (NDR) response of Nb/NbOx/Pt cross-point devices is shown to have a polarity dependence due to the effect of the metal/oxide Schottky barriers on the contact resistance. Three distinct responses are observed under opposite polarity testing: bipolar S-type NDR, bipolar snap-back NDR, and combined S-type and snap-back NDR, depending on the stoichiometry of the oxide film and device area. In-situ thermoreflectance imaging is used to show that these NDR responses are associated with strong current localisation, thereby justifying the use of a previously develop…
In this paper, we investigate the electrical evolution of tungsten (W) and tungsten carbide (WC) Schottky contacts on 4H-SiC subjected to thermal treatments at different annealing temperatures from 475 to 700 ° C. For each annealing temperature, the uniformity of the Schottky barrier height (${ϕ_B}$) and ideality factor (n) was monitored by current-voltage (I-V) measurements in forward bias, performed over sets of equivalent diodes. Good values of n (below 1.05) were found for both contacts up to thermal annealing at 700 ° C. On the other hand, the barrier of the two contacts behaves different…
In this paper, a transient delayed rising and fall time of $β$-Ga$_2$O$_3$ NMs Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) formed on four different substrates (diamond, Si, sapphire, and polyimide) were measured using a sub-micron second resolution time-resolved electrical measurement system under a different temperature condition. The devices exhibited noticeably less-delayed turn-on-/off- the transient time when $β$-Ga$_2$O$_3$ NMs SBDs were transfer-printed on a high-k substrate. Furthermore, a relationship between the $β$-Ga$_2$O$_3$ NM thicknesses and their transient characteristics were systematicall…
Nanosecond electron pulses are appealing for ultrafast imaging and electron gating applications, where tunable currents and narrow energy spreads are desirable. Here, we demonstrate photoemission from a Schottky emitter triggered by nanosecond laser pulses and use a dispersive magnetic prism array to image the electron energy distributions. Using photon energies optimally tuned to the emission potential barrier, we generate pulses containing over 10$^5$ electrons with energy spreads below 1 eV with a prompt, single-photon emission process. These results are consistent with theoretical models o…
Realizing both ultra-low breakdown voltage and ultra-high gain has been one of the major challenges in the development of high-performance avalanche photodetector. Here, we report that an ultra-high avalanche gain of 3*10^5 can be realized in the graphite/InSe Schottky photodetector at a breakdown voltage down to 5.5 V. Remarkably, the threshold breakdown voltage can be further reduced down to 1.8 V by raising the operating temperature, approaching the theoretical limit of 1.5E_g/e with E_g the band gap of semiconductor. We develop a two-dimensional impact ionization model and uncover that obs…
Recently demonstrated metal-semiconductor heterojunctions with few-atom thickness show their promise as 2D Schottky contacts for future integrated circuits and nanoelectronics. The theory for 3D Schottky contacts, however, fails on these low-dimensional systems. Here, we propose a new model that yields carrier distribution and potential profile across the 2D metal-semiconductor heterojunction under the equilibrium condition, based on the input from first-principle calculations. Our calculation also suggests that, at the same forward bias, the current density of a stack of 2D graphene-phosphore…
The electrical behavior of Ni Schottky barrier formed onto heavily doped (ND>1019 cm-3) n-type phosphorous implanted silicon carbide (4H-SiC) was investigated, with a focus on the current transport mechanisms in both forward and reverse bias. The forward current-voltage characterization of Schottky diodes showed that the predominant current transport is a thermionic-field emission mechanism. On the other hand, the reverse bias characteristics could not be described by a unique mechanism. In fact, under moderate reverse bias, implantation-induced damage is responsible for the temperature increa…
In this letter, we demonstrate a lateral AlGaN/GaN Schottky barrier diode (SBD) on sapphire substrate with low turn-on voltage (Von) and high breakdown voltage (VBK). By using a double barrier anode (DBA) structure formed by the mixture of Platinum (Pt) and Tantalum (Ta), the Von of the SBD can be as low as 0.36 V with a leakage current of 2.5E-6 A/mm. Supported by the high-quality carbon-doped GaN buffer on sapphire, the VBK can reach more than 10 kV with the anode-to-cathode spacing of 85 μm. Combining the VBK and the specific on-resistance (Ron,sp) of 25.1 mΩ.cm^2, the power figure of merit…
We have fabricated 4-element Graphene/Silicon on Insulator (SOI) based Schottky barrier photodiode array ()PDA and investigated its optoelectronic device performance. In our device design, monolayer graphene is utilized as common electrode on lithographically defined linear array of n-type Si channels on SOI substrate. As revealed by wavelength resolved photocurrent spectroscopy measurements, each element in the PDA structure exhibited a maximum spectral responsivity comparable to that of commercially available photodiodes operating under self-powered operational mode. Time-dependent photocurr…
A comprehensive current-voltage (I-V) characterization is performed for three different Schottky contacts; Pt, Ni and Ti, to unintentionally doped (UID) \{beta}-(Al0.19Ga0.81)2O3 grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on \{beta}-Ga2O3 for temperatures ranging between 25C -300C. Reciprocal space mapping shows the (Al0.19Ga0.81)2O3 films are strained and lattice matched to the substrate. Schottky Barrier Height (SBH), ideality factor (n), and series resistance (Rs) are extracted from the I-V characteristics for the three types of metals and temperatures. Room temperature capacitance-voltage (C-V)…
Schottky barrier height and the ideality factor $η$ are established for the first time in the single phase (Ga,Mn)N using a vertical geometry device. The material has been heteroepitaxially grown on commercially available low threading dislocation density GaN:Si template. The observed above 10M$Ω$ resistances already at room temperature are indicative that a nearly conductive-dislocation-free electrical properties are achieved. The analysis of temperature dependence of the forward bias I-V characteristics in the frame of the thermionic emission model yields Ti-(Ga,Mn)N Schottky barrier height …
Heterostructures of two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) materials form efficient devices for utilizing the properties of both classes of materials. Graphene/silicon (G/Si) Schottky diodes have been studied extensively with respect to their optoelectronic properties. Here, we introduce a method to analyze measured capacitance-voltage data of G/Si Schottky diodes connected in parallel with G/silicon dioxide/Si (GIS) capacitors. We also demonstrate the accurate extraction of the built-in potential ($Φ$$_{bi}$) and the Schottky barrier height from the measurement data independent of th…
Traditionally, Schottky diodes are used statically in the electronic information industry but dynamic state Schottky diodes based applications have been rarely explored. Herein, a novel Schottky diode named moving Schottky diode generator has been designed, which can convert mechanical energy into electrical energy with voltage output as high as 0.6V, by means of lateral movement between graphene/metal film and semiconductor, where the semiconductor can be non-piezoelectric materials. The mechanism is based on the built-in electric field separation of drifting electrons in moving van der Waals…
Two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides are promising candidates for ultrathin optoelectronic devices due to their high absorption coefficients and intrinsically passivated surfaces. To maintain these near-perfect surfaces, recent research has focused on fabricating contacts that limit Fermi-level pinning at the metal-semiconductor interface. Here, we develop a new, simple procedure for transferring metal contacts that does not require aligned lithography. Using this technique, we fabricate vertical Schottky-junction $WS_2$ solar cells with Ag and Au as asymmetric work function contac…
Vertical diamond Schottky diodes with blocking voltages $V_{\text{BD}} > 2.4 \text{ kV}$ and on-resistances $R_{\text{On}} < 400 \text{ m}Ω\text{cm}^{2}$ were fabricated on homoepitaxially grown diamond layers with different surface morphologies. The morphology (smooth as-grown, hillock-rich, polished) influences the Schottky barrier, the carrier transport properties, and consequently the device performance. The smooth as-grown sample exhibited a low reverse current density $J_{\text{Rev}} < 10^{-4} \text{ A}/\text{cm}^{2}$ for reverse voltages up to $2.2 \text{ kV}$. The hillock-rich sample b…
To explore the potential of field-effect transistors (FETs) based on monolayers of the two-dimensional semiconducting channel(SC) for spintronics, the two most important issues are to ensure the formation of variable low resistive tunnel ferromagnetic contacts(FC), and to preserve intrinsic properties of the SC during fabrication. Large Schottky barriers lead to the formation of high resistive contacts and methods adopted to control the barriers often alter the intrinsic properties of the SC. This work aims at addressing both issues in fully encapsulated monolayer WSe$_2$ FETs by using bi-laye…
In this letter, we demonstrate high-performance lateral AlGaN/GaN Schottky barrier diodes (SBD) on Si substrate with a recessed-anode structure. The optimized rapid etch process provides results in improving etching quality with a 0.26-nm roughness of the anode recessed surface. By using the high work function metal Pt as the Schottky electrode, a low Von of 0.71 V is obtained with a high uniformity of 0.023 V for 40 devices. Supported by the flat anode recess surface and related field plate design, the SBD device with the anode-cathode spacing of 15 um show the Ron,sp of 1.53 mOhm.cm2 only, t…
This paper presents vertical (001) oriented $β$-Ga$_2$O$_3$ field plated (FP) Schottky barrier diode (SBD) with a novel extreme permittivity dielectric field oxide. A thin drift layer of 1.7 $μm$ was used to enable a punch-through (PT) field profile and very low differential specific on-resistance (R$_{on-sp}$) of 0.32 m$Ω$-cm$^{2}$. The extreme permittivity field plate oxide facilitated the lateral spread of the electric field profile beyond the field plate edge and enabled a breakdown voltage ($V_{br}$) of 687 V. The edge termination efficiency increases from 13.5 $\%$ for non-field plated s…
This paper reports on the modulation of Schottky barrier heights (SBH) on three different orientations of $β$-Ga$_2$O$_3$ by insertion of an ultra-thin SiO$_2$ dielectric interlayer at the metal-semiconductor junction, which can potentially lower the Fermi-level pinning (FLP) effect due to metal-induced gap states (MIGS). Pt and Ni metal-semiconductor (MS) and metal-interlayer-semiconductor (MIS) Schottky barrier diodes were fabricated on bulk n-type doped $β$-Ga$_2$O$_3$ single crystal substrates along the (010), (-201) and (100) orientations and were characterized by room temperature current…
The electrical characteristics and microstructures of $β$-Ga$_2$O$_3$ Schottky barrier diode (SBD) devices irradiated with swift heavy ions (2096 MeV Ta ions) have been studied. It was found that $β$-Ga$_2$O$_3$ SBD devices showed the reliability degradation after irradiation, including turn-on voltage Von, on-resistance Ron, ideality factor n and the reverse leakage current density Jr. In addition, the carrier concentration of the drift layer was decreased significantly and the calculated carrier removal rates were 5*106 - 1.3*107 cm-1. Latent tracks induced by swift heavy ions were observed …
Two-dimensional MoS2 has emerged as promising material for nanoelectronics and spintronics due to its exotic properties. However, high contact resistance at metal semiconductor MoS2 interface still remains an open issue. Here, we report electronic properties of field effect transistor devices using monolayer MoS2 channels and permalloy (Py) as ferromagnetic (FM) metal contacts. Monolayer MoS2 channels were directly grown on SiO2/Si substrate via chemical vapor deposition technique. The increase in current with back gate voltage shows the tunability of FET characteristics. The Schottky barrier …
Graphene-silicon Schottky junction (GSJ) which has the potential for large-scale manufacturing and integration can bring new opportunities to Schottky solar cells for photovoltaic (PV) power conversion. However, the essential power conversion limitation for these devices lies in the small open-circuit voltage ($V_{oc}$), which depends on the Schottky barrier height (SBH). In this study, we introduce an electromechanical method based on the flexoelectric effect to enhance the PV efficiency in GSJ. By atomic force microscope (AFM) tip-based indentation and in situ current measurement, the curren…
This work presents the electrostatic analysis of a novel Ga$_2$O$_3$ vertical Schottky diode with three different guard ring configurations to reduce the peak electric field at the metal edges. Highly doped p-type GaN, p-type nonpolar AlGaN and polarization doped graded p-AlGaN are simulated and analyzed as the guard ring material, which forms a heterojunction with the Ga$_2$O$_3$ drift layer. Guard ring with non-polar graded p-AlGaN with a bandgap larger than Ga$_2$O$_3$ is found to show the best performance in terms of screening the electric field at the metal edges. The proposed guard ring …
Due to Fermi level pinning (FLP), metal-semiconductor contact interfaces result in a Schottky barrier height (SBH), which is usually difficult to tune. This makes it challenging to efficiently inject both electrons and holes using the same metal - an essential requirement for several applications, including light-emitting devices and complementary logic. Interestingly, modulating the SBH in the Schottky-Mott limit of de-pinned van der Waals (vdW) contacts becomes possible. However, accurate extraction of the SBH is essential to exploit such contacts to their full potential. In this work, we pr…
Transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) materials have emerged as promising candidates for thin film solar cells due to their wide bandgap range across the visible wavelengths, high absorption coefficient and ease of integration with both arbitrary substrates as well as conventional semiconductor technologies. However, reported TMD-based solar cells suffer from relatively low external quantum efficiencies (EQE) and low open circuit voltage due to unoptimized design and device fabrication. This paper studies $Pt/WSe_2$ vertical Schottky junction solar cells with various $WSe_2$ thicknesses in ord…
A two-dimensional model was developed to simulate the optoelectronic characteristics of indium-gallium-nitride (InGaN), thin-film, Schottky-barrier solar cells. The solar cells comprise a window, designed to reduce the reflection of incident light, Schottky-barrier and ohmic front electrodes, an n-doped InGaN wafer, and a metallic periodically corrugated back-reflector (PCBR). The ratio of indium to gallium in the wafer varies periodically throughout the thickness of the absorbing layer of the solar cell. Thus, the resulting InGaN wafer's optical and electrical properties are made to vary peri…
This work presents the design of beta-Ga2O3 schottky barrier diode using high-k dielectric superjunction to significantly enhance the breakdown voltage vs on-resistance trade-off beyond its already high unipolar figure of merit. The device parameters are optimized using both TCAD simulations and analytical modeling using conformal mapping technique. The dielectric superjunction structure is found to be highly sensitive to the device dimensions and the dielectric constant of the insulator. The aspect ratio, which is the ratio of the length to the width of the drift region, is found to be the mo…
GaN-based lateral Schottky diodes (SBDs) have attracted great attention for high-power applications due to its combined high electron mobility and large critical breakdown field. However, the breakdown voltage (BV) of the SBDs are far from exploiting the material advantages of GaN at present, limiting the desire to use GaN for ultra-high voltage (UHV) applications. Then, a golden question is whether the excellent properties of GaN-based materials can be practically used in the UHV field? Here we demonstrate UHV AlGaN/GaN SBDs on sapphire with a BV of 10.6 kV, a specific on-resistance of 25.8 m…
Schottky barrier inhomogeneities are expected at the metal/TMDC interface and this can impact device performance. However, it is difficult to account for the distribution of interface inhomogeneity as most techniques average over the spot-area of the analytical tool, or the entire device measured for electrical I-V measurements. Commonly used models to extract Schottky barrier heights (SBH) neglect or fail to account for such inhomogeneities, which can lead to the extraction of incorrect SBH and Richardson constants. Here, we show that a gaussian modified thermionic emission model gives the be…
