Possible current-transport mechanisms in the (Ni/Au)/Al0.22Ga0.78N/AlN/GaN Schottky barrier diodes at the wide temperature range

The current-transport mechanisms of (Ni/Au)/Al0.22Ga0.78N/AlN/GaN Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) have been investigated in the wide temperature range of 80–400 K. The analysis of the main electrical characteristics such as zero-bias barrier height (ΦB0), ideality factor (n) and series resistance (Rs) were found strongly temperature dependent. The conventional Richardson plot of ln (I0/T2) vs. 103/T show two linear regions in the temperature range of 80–200 K and 240–400 K. The value of Richardson constant (A*) obtained from these two linear regions were found to be 3.25 × 10−12 and 1.28 × 10−9 A/cm2 K2, respectively, which are much lower than the theoretical value of 27.64 A/cm2 K2. While ΦB0 increases, n   decreases with increasing temperature. Such temperature dependent of Richardson plot and main electrical parameters can be explained on the basis of the thermionic emission (TE) theory with double Gaussian distribution (GD) of the barrier heights (BHs) due to the barrier height (BH) inhomogeneities at the metal/semiconductor (M/S) interface. Therefore, the modified (ln(I0/T2)-q2σ02/2k2T2) vs. q/kT   gives the mean BHs (Φ¯B0) of 1.40 and 0.68 eV and standard deviation σs of 0.184 and 0.082 V, respectively. We also found that the values of Rs obtained from Cheung’s method depend strongly on temperature and abnormally increased with increasing temperature.