Study of the metal-semiconductor contact to ZnO films

High resistance Zinc oxide (ZnO) films have been prepared on Si (100) substrates using magnetron sputtering method. Structure analysis revealed a clear out-of-plane orientation of ZnO (001) || Si (100). The metallic composition of the contact is a critically important parameter for making ohmic contacts to ZnO films. Al/Ti metal contacts show linear I-V characteristics indicative of ohmic behavior, while other metal contacts such as Al and Ti show nonlinear characteristics with rectification, that reveal the presence of schottky barriers.