Prospects of Silicide Contacts for Silicon Quantum Electronic Devices

Abstract

Metal contacts in semiconductor quantum electronic devices can offer advantages over doped contacts, primarily due to lower temperature requirements and reduced fabrication complexity. Some metals can also facilitate ambipolar device operation or form superconducting contacts. Furthermore, a sharp metal-semiconductor interface allows for contact placement in close proximity to the active device area avoiding damage caused by dopant implantation. However, in the case of gate-defined quantum dots in intrinsic silicon, the formation of a Schottky barrier at the silicon-metal interface can lead to large, non-linear contact resistances at cryogenic temperatures. We investigate this issue by examining hole transport through metal-oxide-semiconductor transistors with platinum silicide contacts on intrinsic silicon substrates. We extract the contact and channel resistances for different temperatures and improve the cryogenic conductance of the device by more than an order of magnitude by implementing meander-shaped contacts . In addition, we observe signatures of enhanced transport through localized defect states which we attribute to Pt clusters in the depletion region of the Schottky contacts that form during the silicidation process. These results showcase the prospects of silicide contacts in the context of cryogenic quantum devices and address associated challenges.