A new approach to studying the electrical behavior and the inhomogeneities of the Schottky barrier height

Abstract

In this paper, two Schottky structures of Au/n-GaAs (sample A) and Au/0.8 nm-GaN/n-GaAs (sample B) were fabricated and electrically characterized by current-voltage measurements at different temperatures. Two models, a classical one and another previously proposed named Helal model ref (Helal et al. Eur Phys J Plus, 135:1-14, 2020). Both the models show that the ideality factor n grows as the temperature decreases, and the second model shows higher values especially at low temperatures. The barrier height Phi(b) calculated using the second model decreases when temperature increases for both structures, according to the temperature-dependent band gap, and in contrast to the results obtained by the classical model. Moreover, the second model gives a homogeneous Schottky barrier height and the best resolution of Richardson constant A*, for both structures. On the other hand, the classical model shows an inhomogeneity of the barrier height and very far values of A* from the theoretical one, in both structures. The findings of this study support the validity and dependability of the proposed alternative model. Furthermore, it may give a new insight into the electrical behavior of the Schottky structures.