Abstract
The excellent Schottky barrier height (SBH) lowering effect of the metal/In 0.53 Ga 0.47 As contact is demonstrated to achieve extremely low contact resistance for n-channel In x Ga 1−x As-based devices. Severe Fermi-level pinning, caused by large amounts of metal-induced gap states (MIGS) and interface states at the In 0.53 Ga 0.47 As surface, can be effectively alleviated, and the large SBH of the metal/In 0.53 Ga 0.47 As interface can be significantly lowered by introducing a metal-interlayer-semiconductor (MIS) structure, with the insertion of an Al-doped ZnO (AZO)/Ge interlayer stack between the metal and the In 0.53 Ga 0.47 As. The AZO interlayer is used as a heavily doped interlayer to reduce the MIGS, decrease its tunneling thickness, and lower the SBH. Reduction of the interface states at the In 0.53 Ga 0.47 As surface is achieved by adopting an ultrathin Ge layer as the surface passivation layer. Furthermore, a favorable interfacial dipole is formed at the AZO/Ge/In 0.53 Ga 0.47 As interfaces, which induces further SBH lowering and reduction of the AZO tunneling thickness. A below zero effective SBH for a Ti/AZO (1.2 nm)/Ge (0.5 nm)/n + -In 0.53 Ga 0.47 As (N d = 1 × 10 19 cm −3 ) structure is estimated while the SBH of the Ti/n + -In 0.53 Ga 0.47 As structure is 0.27 eV. A specific contact resistivity value of (8.3 ± 2.6) × 10 −9 Ω cm 2 is achieved for the proposed MIS structure, which is one of the lowest reported values for ohmic contacts to date. This result suggests that the proposed MIS structure, incorporating the AZO/Ge interlayer stack, presents a promising ohmic contact technique for III–V compound semiconductor-based applications.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 48-55 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Applied Surface Science |
Volume | 453 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2018 Sept 30 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported in part by the Technology Innovation Program within the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, Korea , under Grant 10052804 , in part by the research project of Samsung Electronics, and in part by the Basic Science Research Program within the Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning through the National Research Foundation of Korea under Grant 2017R1A2B4006460 .
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Elsevier B.V.
Keywords
- Contact resistance
- III–V compound semiconductor
- InGaAs
- Interfacial dipole
- Passivation
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Condensed Matter Physics
- Surfaces, Coatings and Films
- Surfaces and Interfaces