Double barrier nature of Au/p-GaTe Schottky contact: Linearization of Richardson plot

The current–voltage (I–V) characteristics of Au/p-GaTe Schottky contact were characterized at 60–300 K temperature range and compared with those of Al/p-GaTe. The observed anomalies of Schottky barrier were interpreted on the basis of thermionic emission model. The barrier height and ideality factor values at 280 K for Au were 0.513 eV and 1.022, respectively. As temperature lowered down to 140 K, we observed that these parameters gradually decreased. The barrier height dependence on temperature demonstrated a double-Gaussian distribution. The weighting coefficients for each Gaussian distribution and their standard deviations were found to be 0.76–37.7 meV and 0.24–58.2 meV for Au, respectively. A linearization procedure based on the double barrier distribution was carried out, and the Richardson constant for Au/p-GaTe was found to be 148.03 A K−2 cm−2. This value is reasonably close to the theoretical value given in the literature as 119.4 A K−2 cm−2.