Analyses of temperature-dependent interface states, series resistances, and AC electrical conductivities of Al/p—Si and Al/Bi4Ti3O12/p—Si structures by using the admittance spectroscopy method

Abstract

In this study, Al/p—Si and Al/Bi4Ti3O12/p—Si structures are fabricated and their interface states (Nss), the values of series resistance (Rs), and AC electrical conductivity (σac) are obtained each as a function of temperature using admittance spectroscopy method which includes capacitance—voltage (C—V) and conductance—voltage (G—V) measurements. In addition, the effect of interfacial Bi4Ti3O12 (BTO) layer on the performance of the structure is investigated. The voltage-dependent profiles of Nss and Rs are obtained from the high-low frequency capacitance method and the Nicollian method, respectively. Experimental results show that Nss and Rs, as strong functions of temperature and applied bias voltage, each exhibit a peak, whose position shifts towards the reverse bias region, in the depletion region. Such a peak behavior is attributed to the particular distribution of Nss and the reordering and restructuring of Nss under the effect of temperature. The values of activation energy (Ea), obtained from the slope of the Arrhenius plot, of both structures are obtained to be bias voltage-independent, and the Ea of the metal-ferroelectric-semiconductor (MFS) structure is found to be half that of the metal—semiconductor (MS) structure. Furthermore, other main electrical parameters, such as carrier concentration of acceptor atoms (NA), built-in potential (Vbi), Fermi energy (EF), image force barrier lowering (Δ Φb), and barrier height (Φb), are extracted using reverse bias C−2—V characteristics as a function of temperature.