Schottky barrier height reduction for holes by Fermi level depinning using metal/nickel oxide/silicon contacts

Journal Article · Mon Nov 03 00:00:00 EST 2014 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4901193· OSTI ID:22310702

Islam, Raisul; Shine, Gautam; Saraswat, Krishna C. ^[1]

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1. Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305 (United States)

We report the experimental demonstration of Fermi level depinning using nickel oxide (NiO) as the insulator material in metal-insulator-semiconductor (M-I-S) contacts. Using this contact, we show less than 0.1 eV barrier height for holes in platinum/NiO/silicon (Pt/NiO/p-Si) contact. Overall, the pinning factor was improved from 0.08 (metal/Si) to 0.26 (metal/NiO/Si). The experimental results show good agreement with that obtained from theoretical calculation. NiO offers high conduction band offset and low valence band offset with Si. By reducing Schottky barrier height, this contact can be used as a carrier selective contact allowing hole transport but blocking electron transport, which is important for high efficiency in photonic applications such as photovoltaics and optical detectors.

• OSTI ID: 22310702
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 105, Issue 18; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
CARRIERS
EFFICIENCY
ELECTRIC CONDUCTIVITY
ELECTRONS
EV RANGE
FERMI LEVEL
NICKEL OXIDES
OPTICAL EQUIPMENT
PHOTOVOLTAIC EFFECT
PLATINUM
SCHOTTKY BARRIER DIODES
SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS
SILICON
VALENCE