The Eect of Exposure Time to Clean Room Air on Characteristic Parameters of Au /Epilayer n-Si Schottky Diodes

Authors: M. SAĞLAM, Ç. NUHOĞLU, E. AYYILDIZ, A. TÜRÜT, H.A. ÇETİNKARA

Abstract: A study has been made on determination and comparison of current-voltage (I-V) and capacitance-voltage (C-V) characteristics parameters of $Au/n-Si$ Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) with and without thin native oxide layer fabricated on $n$-type $Si$ grown by LPE (Liquid-phase Epitaxy) technique. The native oxide layer with different thicknesses on chemically cleaned on $Si$ surface were obtained by exposing the surfaces to clean room air before evaporating metal. The native oxide thicknesses of samples D2, D3, D4 and D5 are in the form $D2 < D3 < D4 \leq D5$, depending on the exposing time. It has been seen that the values of barrier height $\Phi_b$ of samples D2(0.64 eV), D3(0.66 eV), D4(0.69 eV) and D5(0.69 eV) with the interfacial layer increased with increasing the exposure time and tended to that of the initial sample D1 (nonoxidezed sample, 0.74 eV), and thus also their I-V and C-V curves. The reverse current of sample D1 showed slight nonsaturating behavior. This ''soft'' behavior has been ascribed to the spatial inhomogeneity in the barrier heights at the MS interface. In particular, reverse bias curves of samples D2, D3, D4 and D5 have shown excellent saturation which may be attributed to the passivation of the semiconductor surface states by the native oxide layer which reduces the penetration of the wave functions of electron in the metal into the semiconductor. Especially, the I-V characteristics and experimental parameters of our devices are in agreement with recently reported results revealed by the pulsed surface photovoltage technique for the electronic properties of the HF-treated Si surface during initial oxidation in air.

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