Current diffusion effects in titanium- N silicon schottky diodes

Abstract

Measurements of the reverse current-voltage characteristics of titanium- n silicon Schottky barrier diodes are presented which demonstrate that diffusion limited currents can occur in these diodes when the internal electric field is low. For the titanium- n silicon diodes, the low barrier height of 0.51 eV and doping concentration of 10 15 cm −3 result in an electric field of 8 × 10 3 V cm −1 at zero bias. An observed decrease in the reverse saturation current at low bias, previously described as anomalous, is now reconciled with the thermionic-diffusion theory of current flow, whoch predicts a reduction in A ∗∗, the effective Richardson constant, at internal fields below 10 5 V cm −1.