The Ideality of Spatially Inhomogeneous Schottky Contacts

Abstract
We present a new analytical theory of electronic transport for inhomogeneous Schottky contacts. Our model combines a novel method to solve Poisson's equation for the space charge region of an inhomogeneous contact with thermionic emission theory. We explain quantitatively the temperature and voltage dependences of the ideality factor n of current/voltage characteristics, and we are able to extract from experimental data information on the characteristic size of the inhomogeneities. Our measurements on polycrystalline and epitaxial Schottky contacts yield values in the range of 200–500nm as the typical size of inhomogeneities, covering a fraction of 0.1–1% of the total interface area.

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