Barrier heights and electrical properties of intimate metal-AlGaAs junctions

Abstract

The dependence of the Schottky barrier height of Mo-n:AlGaAs junctions, fabricated in situ by molecular beam epitaxy, on the Al mole fraction (x) was determined by internal photoemission measurements and by activation energy plots of the current versus voltage dependence on temperature. Both techniques yielded similar values. The difference in barrier height of Mo-AlGaAs as a function of x, compared to that of Mo-GaAs, was found to be equal to the conduction band discontinuity in AlGaAs-GaAs heterojunctions for Al concentrations in the range 0≤x≤0.4. For x>0.4, values of the barrier heights were somewhat lower than values of the band discontinuity; however, both dependencies on x were quite similar. The temperature dependence of the current-voltage characteristics showed that thermionic emission was the dominant transport mechanism at forward bias for temperatures higher than 250 K. At lower temperatures, current transport was governed by thermionic field emission.