Influence of surface morphology on the instrument characteristics of planar INP/GAAS Schottky diodes in millimeter range

With the use of AFM it has been demonstrated one of the possible ideal surface states of the epitaxial layer n-InP, which allows obtaining the metal-semiconductor contacts in submillimeter range with a low Schottky barrier height ϕ
b
<0.5 eV, the ideality index n <1.07, and series resistance RS <10 ohm. It was shown in practice, that the semiconductor surface required to obtain quality metal-semiconductor contacts with Schottky barrier should be considered not only in terms of minimum linear dimensions of the irregularities and inhomogeneities, but also in terms of ideality of their statistical distribution, which is known to be characterized by a Gaussian function. At the same time, not all ideal states of n-InP surface can be equally suitable for obtaining of quality metal-semiconductor contacts with Schottky barrier.