Schottky barrier height inhomogeneities of nickel mono-silicide/n-Si contact studied by I-V-T technique

The current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of nickel mono-silicide/n-Si Schottky diodes fabricated at different temperature and measured over a temperature range of 78 to 299 K have been interpreted on the basis of thermionic emission (TE) across an inhomogeneous Schottky contact. The experiment shows that the apparent barrier height /spl phi//sub ap/-1/T plot is a straight line within the whole experimental temperature for samples annealed at temperature ranging from 500/spl deg/C to 600/spl deg/C, however, for other samples annealed at temperature below 500/spl deg/C and above 600/spl deg/C the /spl phi//sub ap/-1/T Plots become more complicated. The linear case shows the Schottky barrier height inhomogeneities (SBHI) obeys single Gaussian distribution.