The Mechanism of Schottky Barrier Modulation of Tantalum Nitride/Ge Contacts

Author

Yujin Seo ; Sukwon Lee ; Baek, Seung-heon Chris ; Wan Sik Hwang ; Hyun-Yong Yu ; Seok-Hee Lee ; Byung Jin Cho

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., Korea Adv. Inst. of Sci. & Technol., Daejeon, South Korea

Volume

36

Issue

10

fYear

2015

Firstpage

997

Lastpage

1000

Abstract

In this letter, we discuss the mechanism of Schottky barrier height (SBH) modulation of the TaN/Ge contact by varying the nitrogen concentration in the TaN. The Fermi level, which is strongly pinned near the valence band edge of Ge, moves to the conduction band edge of Ge with higher nitrogen concentration in the reactive sputtered TaN. This SBH modulation is attributed to the presence of an electric dipole induced by Ge-N bonds at the interface of the TaN/Ge contact. This SBH modulation due to the semiconductor-nitrogen bonds at the interface is not specific to TaN/Ge, but rather is a general feature in various transition-metal nitride systems on various semiconductors.

Keywords

Fermi level; Schottky barriers; conduction bands; electrical contacts; elemental semiconductors; germanium; tantalum compounds; valence bands; Fermi level; SBH modulation; Schottky barrier height modulation; TaN-Ge; conduction band edge; electric dipole; nitrogen concentration; reactive sputtering; semiconductor-nitrogen bonds; tantalum nitride-Ge contacts; transition-metal nitride system; valence band edge; Conductivity; Films; Germanium; Modulation; Nitrogen; Substrates; Fermi level de–pinning; Fermi level de???pinning; Germanium; Schottky barrier height; tantalum nitride;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Device Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0741-3106

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LED.2015.2470535

Filename

7214232