Temperature-Dependent Barrier Characteristics of Inhomogeneous In/p-Si (100) Schottky Barrier Diodes

The current-voltage (I--V) characteristics of In/p-Si Schottky barrier diodes have been determined in the temperature range 100--300K and have been interpreted based on the assumption of a Gaussian distribution of barrier heights due to barrier height inhomogeneities that prevail at the metal- semiconductor interface. The evaluation of the experimental I--V data reveals a decrease of zero-bias barrier height but an increase of ideality factor n with decreasing temperature. The inhomogeneities are considered to have Gaussian distribution with a mean zero-bias barrier height of 0.630eV and standard deviation of 0.083V at zero bias. Furthermore, the mean barrier height and the Richardson constant values were obtained to be 0.617eV and 20.71A K^-2 cm^-2, respectively, by means of the modified Richardson plot, (I₀/T²) - (q²σ_s0/2k²T²) versus 1000/T.