Analysis of the series resistance and interface state densities in metal semiconductor structures

Abstract

The electrical properties of Co/n-Si metal-semiconductor (MS) Schottky structure investigated at room temperature using current-voltage (I-V) characteristics. The characteristic parameters of the structure such as barrier height, ideality factor and series resistance have been determined from the I-V measurements. The values of barrier height obtained from Norde’s function were compared with those from Cheung functions, and it was seen that there was a good agreement between barrier heights from both methods. The series resistance values calculated with Cheung’s two methods were compared and seen that there was an agreement with each other. However, the values of series resistance obtained from Cheung functions and Norde’s functions are not agreeing with each other. Because, Cheung functions are only applied to the non-linear region (high voltage region) of the forward bias I–V characteristics. Furthermore, the energy distribution of interface state density was determined from the forward bias I-V characteristics by taking into account the bias dependence of the effective barrier height. The results show that the presence of thin interfacial layer between the metal and semiconductor