Electrical characterization of Au/3C-SiC/n-Si/Al Schottky junction

High temperature silicon carbide Schottky diode was fabricated with Au deposited on poly 3C-SiC thin film grown on n-type Si(1 0 0) using atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition. The charge transport mechanism of the diode was studied in the temperature range of 300–550 K. The forward and reverse bias currents of the diode increase strongly with temperature and the diode shows a non-ideal behavior due to the series resistance and the interface states associated with 3C-SiC. The charge transport mechanism is a temperature activated process, in which, the electrons passes over of the low barriers and in turn, the diode has a large ideality factor. The electrical parameters of the Au/3C-SiC/n-Si/Al Schottky diode were explained on the basis of the thermionic emission theory with double Gaussian distribution of the barrier heights due to the barrier height inhomogeneities at metal/semiconductor interface. The interface state density of the diode was determined by the conductance–frequency method and it was of order of 9.18 × 1010 eV−1 cm−2.

Research highlights▶ The charge transport mechanism of Au/3C-SiC/n-Si/Al Schottky is a temperature activated process. ▶ The temperature dependent on ideality factor and barrier height was explained by on the basis of the thermionic emission with double Gaussian distribution of the barrier heights at the interface. ▶ Au/3C-SiC/n-Si/Al Schottky diode can be used in high temperature applications.