Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 April 2013
The reverse leakage current mechanisms of Schottky diodes prepared using liquid gallium on as-grown and cleaved tungsten diselenide surfaces were investigated by current-voltage method for the first time. The major leakage mechanism has been identified as tunneling current along with a small contribution of thermionic emission current. The leakage tunneling current is found to be predominant in uncleaved diode compared to that in cleaved one. This is related to the magnitude of interface state density and interfacial inhomogeneities. The inhomogeneous nature of the interface of the fabricated diodes is ascribed to be the reason behind its soft reverse characteristics.