Schottky Barrier Height of Erbium Silicide on $ \hbox{Si}_{1 - x}\hbox{C}_{x}$

Abstract

In this letter, the Schottky barrier height of erbium silicide contacts formed on Si <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">1-x</sub> C <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">x</sub> alloys was measured. The alloys were pseudomorphically grown on Si wafers with 0% to 1.2% C occupying the substitutional sites. Schottky barrier diodes were fabricated with an ideality factor of 1.13 or less. The hole barrier height was found to be 0.73 eV independent of the C concentration. This suggests that the electron barrier height should decrease with increasing C concentration due to the reduction in the semiconductor bandgap. For 1.2% C, the electron barrier is estimated to be 0.29 eV.