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3.1.6.

2 Schottky Contact

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3.1.6.2 Schottky Contact


A Schottky barrier refers to a metal-semiconductor contact having a large barrier height (i.e.
and low doping concentration that is less than the density of states in the conduction band or valence band.
The potential barrier between the metal and the semiconductor can be identified on an energy band
diagram. To construct such a diagram we first consider the energy band diagram of the metal and the
semiconductor, and align them using the same vacuum level as shown in Fig. 3.2 (a). As the metal and
semiconductor are brought together, the Fermi energies of the two materials must be equal at thermal
equilibrium Fig. 3.2 (b).

Figure 3.2: Energy band diagram of a metal adjacent to


n-type semiconductor under thermal noneqilibrium
condition (a), metal-semiconductor contact in thermal
equilibrium (b).

The barrier height

is defined as the potential difference between the Fermi energy of the metal and the

band edge where the majority carrier reside. From Fig. 3.2 one finds that for n-type semiconductors the
barrier height is obtained from
(3.40)

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3.1.6.2 Schottky Contact

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where

is the work function of the metal and

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is the electron affinity. The work function of selected

metals as measured in vacuum can be found in Fig. 3.3 [108].

For p-type material, the barrier height is given by the difference between the valence band edge and the
Fermi energy in the metal,

(3.41)

A metal-semiconductor junction will therefore form a barrier for electrons and holes

Figure 3.3: Energy band diagram of the selected metals


and 4H-SiC.
if the Fermi energy of the metal is located between the conduction and the valence band edge.

In addition, we define the work function difference as the difference between the work function of the
metal and that of the semiconductor. For n-type material it reads

(3.42)

similarly, for p-type material

(3.43)

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The work function difference energy becomes


(3.44)

The measured barrier height for selected metal/4H-SiC junction is listed in Table 3.1 [109,110]. These
experimental barrier heights depend on the surface polarity of SiC (Si- and C-face), and often differ from
the ones calculated using (3.40) and (3.41).
Table 3.1: Work function of selected metals and their
measured and calculated barrier height on n-type 4H-SiC.
Al

Ti

Zn

Mo

Cu

Ni

Au

Pt

4.28 4.33 4.33 4.55 4.60 4.65 5.10 5.15 5.65


(Si-face)

1.12

1.69 1.81

(C-face)

1.25

1.87 2.07

(calculated) 1.01 1.06 1.06 1.28 1.33 1.38 1.63 1.68 2.08

This is due to the detailed behavior of the metal-semiconductor interface. The ideal metal-semiconductor
theory assumes that both materials are pure and that there is no interaction between the two materials nor
any interfacial layer. Chemical reactions between the metal and the semiconductor alter the barrier height
as do interface states at the surface of the semiconductor and interfacial layers. Furthermore, one finds the
barrier heights reported in the literature to vary widely due to different surface cleaning procedures.

The current density is calculated according to the thermionic emission condition [111] neglecting tunneling
currents:
(3.45)

(3.46)

here, the thermionic recombination velocities

and

for electrons and holes, respectively are given

by

(3.47)

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and are usually represented by the expression

(3.48)

where

(3.49)

is known as the effective Richardson constant. It is dependent on the effective mass and has a theoretical
value of 146 and 72
for n-type 4H- and 6H-SiC, respectively [108].

The effective carrier masses are explicitly described in Section 3.2.2.

The carrier concentrations at the surface are given by

(3.50)

(3.51)

Note that the expressions (3.45) and (3.46) are equivalent to the most commonly used expressions [111]

(3.52)

(3.53)

The Schottky contact boundary conditions for the carrier temperatures


temperature

and

and the lattice

are similar to the ones which apply for the Ohmic contact, i.e. (3.36) and (3.37), or

respectively (3.38).

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Contact
T. Ayalew: SiC Semiconductor Devices Technology, Modeling, and Simulation

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