On metal-semiconductor diodes fabricated by electrodeposition techniques

Abstract

Metal-semiconductor diodes have been fabricated by electrodeposition of gold, silver, nickel, iron and copper onto chemically cleaned epitaxial n-type silicon. The barrier height of the diodes has been determined both by I- V and C- V techniques. Values of the barrier height (φB) and the ideality factor (n) comparable to these of vacuum-evaporated metal semiconductor diodes have been obtained. A non-linearity in the 1/C2 versus V plot has been observed, and has been satisfactorily explained by taking surface state capacitance into consideration. The value of the surface state density (Ds ) and position of neutral level (φ0) at the surface have been determined from the observed linear relationship between the barrier heights of the contacts and the metal work function. It has further been observed that the barrier height follows a linear relationship both with electronegativity (X p) and atomic number (Z) of the deposited metals.