Schottky diodes on hydrogen plasma treated n-GaAs surfaces

Abstract
The characteristics of Schottky diodes on n‐GaAs fabricated after an in situ low‐pressure rf H2 plasma treatment have been investigated as a function of the substrate temperature during the plasma treatment. Degraded rectifying characteristics result after room‐temperature treatments, while diodes with ideality factor as low as 1.01 were achieved in the temperature range 160–240 °C. An increase in barrier height was also observed with increasing substrate temperature during plasma treatment. The contact properties are correlated to H diffusion in a surface layer of GaAs, which passivates the dopant atoms and defect sites.