A novel way to characterize Metal-Insulator-Metal devices via nanoindentation

Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) devices are crucial components for applications ranging from optical rectennas for harvesting sunlight to infrared detectors. To date, the relationship between materials properties and device performance in MIM devices is not fully understood, partly due to the difficulty in making and reproducing reliable devices. One configuration that is popular due to its simplicity and ease of fabrication is the point-contact diode where a metal tip serves as one of the metals in the MIM device. The intrinsic advantage of the point-contact configuration is that it is possible to achieve very small contact areas for the device thereby allowing very high-frequency operation. In this study, precise control over the contact area and penetration depth of an electrically conductive tip into a metal/insulator combination is achieved using a nanoindenter with in-situ electrical contact resistance measurement capabilities. A diamond probe tip, doped (degeneratively) with boron for conductivity, serves as the point contact and second `metal´ (b-Diamond) of the MIM diode. The base layer consists of Nb/Nb₂O₅ thin films on Si substrates and serves as the first metal /insulator combination of the MIM structure. The current-voltage response of the diodes is measured under a range of conditions to assess the validity and repeatability of the technique. Additionally, we compare the results of this technique to those acquired using a bent-wire approach and find that Nb/Nb₂O₅/b-Diamond MIM devices show an excellent asymmetry (60-300) and nonlinearity values (~6-9. This technique shows great promise for screening metal-insulator combinations for performance without the uncertainty that stems from a typical bent-wire point-contact.