Analysis of temperature-dependent barrier heights in erbium-silicided Schottky diodes

Abstract

We manufactured erbium-silicided Schottky diodes on n-type and p-type silicon substrates to determine the Schottky barrier heights for electrons and holes, respectively. The effective barrier heights were extracted from the current-voltage-temperature characteristics of the Schottky diodes in reverse-bias condition. The barrier heights were obtained as a function of temperature, decreasing with the decrease of temperature. Low effective barrier heights at low temperature may be due to the trap-assisted current at the erbium silicide/silicon Schottky junction. The temperature-independent barrier heights for electrons and holes were evaluated to be 0.39 and 0.69 eV, respectively, at high temperature by fitting the effective barrier heights as a function of temperature. In this case, the carrier conduction mechanism can be explained by the pure thermionic emission model.