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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 February 2011
Schottky diodes were fabricated by evaporating metal thin layers on p-Si1-xGex by cryogenic processing. The cryogenic processing, with substrate temperature cooled to as low as 77K (LT), has been successfully used to enhance metal/III-V semiconductor Schottky barrier height[1]. The electrical characteristics of the diodes were investigated by current-voltage (IV) and current-temperature (I-T) measurements. In order to study the effect of silicide formation on diode characteristics, furnace annealing was performed in nitrogen atmosphere at 450°C and 550°C, respectively. Two kinds of samples with gemanium composition x of 0.17 and 0.20 were used. The electrical characteristics showed the barrier height фB decreased with the increase of the gemanium composition. The annealing temperatures up till to 550°C did not affect the I-V characteristics at room temperature, however, the conduction mechanism showed obvious difference comparing to the as-deposited diodes by I-V-T analysis. For Pd as Schottky metal, very similar results were obtained for the LT as-deposited diodes and the ordinary room temperature (RT) deposited diodes after 550° annealing, they both showed thermionic emission dominated conduction mechanism.