The effects of the temperature and annealing on current–voltage characteristics of Ni/n-type 6H–SiC Schottky diode

The temperature dependence of current–voltage (I–V) characteristics of as-fabricated and annealed Ni/n-type 6H–SiC Schottky diode has been investigated in the temperature range of 100–500 K. The forward I–V characteristics have been analysed on the basis of standard thermionic emission theory. It has been shown that the ideality factor (n  ) decreases while the barrier height (ΦbΦb) increases with increasing temperature. The values of ΦbΦb and n are obtained between 0.65–1.25 eV and 1.70–1.16 for as-fabricated and 0.74–1.70 eV and 1.84–1.19 for annealed diode in the temperature range of 100–500 K, respectively. The I–V characteristics of the diode showed an increase in the Schottky barrier height, along with a reduction of the device leakage current by annealing the diode at 973 K for 2 min.