Current transport in Zn/p-Si(1Â 0Â 0) Schottky barrier diodes at high temperatures

In this study, we have performed behavior of the non-ideal forward bias current-voltage (I-V) and the reverse bias capacitance-voltage (C-V) characteristics of Zn/p-Si (metal-semiconductor) Schottky barrier diode (SBDs) with thin interfacial insulator layer. The forward bias I-V and reverse bias C-V characteristics of SBDs have been studied at the temperatures range of 300-400 K. SBD parameters such as ideality factor n, the series resistance (RS) determined Cheung's functions and Schottky barrier height, Φb, are investigated as functions of temperature. The ideality factor n and RS were strongly temperature dependent and changed linearly with temperature and inverse temperature, respectively. The zero-bias barrier heights Φb0(I-V) calculated from I-V measurements show an unusual behavior that it was found to increase linearly with the increasing temperature. However, the barrier height Φb(C-V) calculated from C-V measurements at 500 kHz frequency decreased linearly with the increasing temperature. The correlation between Φb0(I-V) and Φb(C-V) barrier heights have been explained by taking into account ideality factors n and the tunneling factor (αχ1/2δ) in the current transport mechanism. Also, the temperature dependence of energy distribution of interface state density (NSS) was determined from the forward I-V measurements by taking into account the bias dependence of the effective barrier height. The higher values of n and RS were attributed to the presence of a native insulator on Si surface and to high density of interface states localized at semiconductor-native oxide layer (Si/SiO2) interface.