2012 International Conference on Computing, Measurement, Control and Sensor Network

I-V Characteristics of the Metal-Semiconductor Junction

The remarkable feature of Schottky junction with high

1,2 1,2 1,2 resistance contact is rectifying. At the beginning of the last
Wenzhe Ma , Wendong Zhang , Pengwei Li , Jie century Schottky studied M-S junctions in depth and put
Hu1,2, Gang Li1,2, Shengbo Sang1,2* forward a barrier existed in M-S junction. It is named
1
MicroNano System Research Center, Information Schottky junction. Schottky barrier height is denoted by b .
Engineering College, Taiyuan University of Technology According to Schottky-Mott theory , the barrier of M-S
2
Key Lab of Advanced Transducers and Intelligent Control junction is
System, Ministry of Education, Taiyuan University of b  m   (1)
Technology  m is metal work function, which is defined as the
Taiyuan, Shanxi, China
minimum energy for transition of electrons from the surface
sangshengbo@tyut.edu.cn
to vacuum.  is electron affinity, which meacns the energy
for transition of electrons from semiconductors to metals.
Abstract—The electrical characteristic test of nanowires is II. THERMIONIC EMISSION-BASED CONDUCTION
important in nano-materials research. The metal-
CURRENT
semiconductor junction that is fabricated with semiconductor
nanowire and metal probe in electrical test system has impact Thermionic emission is one of the Schottky barrier’s
on the test result directly, therefore it’s necessary to study I-V current transmission methods. Thermionic emission means
characteristics of the metal-semiconductor(M-S) junction. that the electrons jump over the barrier from the conduction
Si,ZnO,GaN have been selected from multiple semiconductor band of the semiconductor into the metal. Carriers emission
materials. When they connected with tungsten probe, all of process across the uniform Schottky barrier can be described
them formed Schottky barriers, but the relationships between by thermionic emission. At thermal equilibrium, the current
current and voltage of the junctions are distinct. In the thesis, produced by carriers jumping over the maximum barrier is,
I-V curves of these M-S junctions are compared, and the best q  qV
electrical performance of M-S junction is selected. I  AAT 2 exp(  b ) (2)
kT
Keywords- I-V characteristics, M-S junction, Schottky barrier, Where A indicates the contact area of metal probe and
nanowire nanowire, A is Richardson constant, q is unit quantity of
electric charge, b is effective potential barrier height, V is
I. INTRODUCTION bias voltage, k is Boltzmann’s constant, and T is the
Nowadays electronic devices are breaking the limitations absolute temperature. Among them, Richardson constant
of the size and developing to miniaturization. Nanoscale can be expressed as
electronic devices have been emerging in large numbers. 4qmn k 2
Among them, semiconductor nanowire has not only the A  (3)
characteristics of semiconductor but also high specific h3
surface area[1]. Binding numerous charged molecules on The electrons in metal get over the barrier and go into
nanowires’ surface, a lage number of carriers’ depletion and semiconductor under the reverse bias. The reverse current is
accumulation in nanowires cause the conductance to change independent of the reverse bias. I r indicates the reverse
significantly. It follows that nanowires have high sensitivity. current,
Thus, how to test the electrical characteristics of q
semiconductor nanowires has become one of the hottest I r  AAT 2 exp(  b ) (4)
researches. The primary task of the electrical test of a single kT
semiconductor nanowire is researching the semiconductor The net current on the metal probe and semiconductor
nanowire-metal probe contact. Nanoscale metal- nanowire, Is, is the difference between (2) and (4).
semiconductor (M-S) junction has great influence on the
electrical characteristics of nanowire. That is why it is qb  qV q
I s (V )  I  I r  AAT 2 [exp(  )  exp(  b )]
particularly important to further research the current-voltage kT kT
(I-V) characteristics of M-S junctions. q qV
M-S junctions can be divided into two types, Ohm  AAT 2 exp(  b )[exp( )  1]

junctions and Schottky junctions. Ohm junction is low kT kT
resistance contact, which means that compared to the qV
voltage drawdown on nanowire, the voltage drawdown on  I Sat[exp( )  1]
kT
M-S junction is negligible. The formation mechanism of In (5), I Sat is the saturation current. Under the large bias,
Ohm junction is more complicated than Schottky junction’s.
the net current and bias voltage are exponential relationship.

978-0-7695-4738-1/12 $26.00 © 2012 IEEE 195

DOI 10.1109/CMCSN.2012.50
 qb
I Sat  AAT 2 exp( 
) 

kT
In (5), when qV  3kT the exponent part can ignore the
minus 1, is described by
qV
I s (V )  I Sat exp( )  
kT
Taking into account the series resistance, then (5) turn
into
q(V  I s Rs )
I s (V )  I Sat exp[  1] (8)
kT
3kT
When V  , Rs is small relatively and can be
q
ignored.
III. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE M-S JUNCTIONS
BETWEEN ZNOǃSIǃGAN NANOWIRES AND TUNGSTEN
ELECTRODE
A. ZnO
Zinc oxide (ZnO), a new type of semiconductor materials,
belongs to II-VI main group direct band gap semiconductor
materials. A notable feature is wide band gap that is
Eg=3.37eV [2, 3] at room temperature. In addition, it has
large exciton binding energy which reaches up to 60meV [4,
5] at room temperature. ZnO is one of the most diverse
nanomaterials ever discovered in terms of morphology and
structure. Its typical nanostructures are nanowires [6, 7],
nanorods [8], nanotubes [9].
Based on thermionic emission theory, (8) shows the
complete formula of the current getting over the Schottky
junction between ZnO nanowire and tungsten electrode.
q q(V  IRs )
I (V )  AAT 2 exp(  b ) exp[  1]
kT kT
Ignoring series resistance, Rs , and according to (6), the
relationship between current and voltage can be simplified to
q qV
I (V )  AAT 2 exp(  b ) exp( ) (10)
kT kT
b is effective potential barrier height. It can be
described by
b  m    4.55eV  4.29eV  0.26eV
Where m  4.55eV is tungsten’s work function,
  4.29eV is electron affinity of ZnO . In (10), q is unit
quantity of electric charge, q=1.602 h 10-19C. k is
Boltzmann’s constant, k=1.38h10-23J/K. T=298K is equal to
25ć. A is the contact area between tungsten probe and ZnO
nanowire, A*=32A/(cm2 g K2) is Richardson constant. At
room temperature,25ć, mn  0.27m0 ,where m0 is rest mass
of electron, and m0=9.108h10-31kg. I-V curve and semi-
logarithmic I-V curve of the junction between ZnO nanowire
and tungsten electrode are as Fig. 1.

(a)
(b)
Figure 1. (a) I-V curve of the junction between ZnO nanowire and
tungsten electrode. (b) Semi-logarithmic I-V curve of the junction between
ZnO nanowire and tungsten electrode
B. Si
Silicon is the dominant material in electronics and
micro electronics industries , providing a reliable foundation
for the development of the electronics industry and
supporting the rapid development of the information industry.
Si nanowire has become the leader in multitudinous
nanowires due to its extensive sources and low price. The
band gap of Si nanowire is 1.12eV, which lead to that silicon
devices’ junction leakage current is small and they can
(9) operate in high temperature. The highest operating
temperature of the silicon devices can be up to 250 ° C [10].
There have been numerous novel applications about Si
nanowires. For instance, Park [11] made advantage of Si
nanowire bio-sensor that is needle-like structure to detect a
single cell through detecting the pH value or enzyme activity.
Li et al. [12] modified the doped Bi and P-doped nanowires
with oligonucleotides to fabricate DNA nanowire bio-
sensors.
effective potential barrier height between Si nanowire
and tungsten electrode is
b  m    4.55eV  4.35eV  0.2eV .
Where m  4.55eV is the work function of tungsten,
  4.35eV is electron affinity of Si. At 25 ć , the
Richardson constant of n-type silicon is A*=112A/(cm2gK2).
Based on (10) , I-V curve and semi-logarithmic I-V curve of
the Schottky junction between Si nanowire and tungsten
electrode are as Fig. 2.
C. GaN
GaN materials display excellent electrical properties with a
196

(a)
(b)
Figure 2. (a) The I-V curve of the junction between Si nanowire and
tungsten electrode.(b) Semi-logarithmic I-V curve of the junction between Si
nanowire and tungsten electrode.
wide band gap, high thermal conductivity, high breakdown
electric field, corrosion resistance and anti-radiation,
therefore GaN is reputed to be the third generation of
semiconductor materials after the first generation of
semiconductor materials, Si and Ge, and the second
generation, InP and GaAs [13].
That the single GaN nanowire contacts to tungsten
electrode leads to the effective barrier height is
b  m    4.55eV  4.05eV  0.5eV .
At 25 ć , the Richardson constant of n-type GaN is
A*=112A/(cm2 gK2). I-V curve and semi-logarithmic I-V
curve of the junction between GaN nanowire and tungsten
electrode are as Fig. 3.
(a)
197
(b)
Figure 3. (a) The I-V curve of the junction between GaN nanowire and
tungsten electrode.(b) Semi-logarithmic I-V curve of the junction between
GaN nanowire and tungsten electrode.
IV. CONCLUSION
Nanowires have penetrated into various fields because
of their outstanding performances. In the electrical test of a
single semiconductor nanowire, the M-S junction has a
significant effect on the electrical characteristics. Different
M-S junctions form different effective barrier height, and the
difference is reflected in I-V curve of M-S junctions. From
figures above it’s easy to find each of three semiconductor
materials contacting to tungsten probe demonstrates
rectifying behavior. Comparing the three materials, under the
same bias range, the current on the junction between Si and
tungsten is biggest, the second largest is the junction between
ZnO and tungsten, and the GaN’s is smallest. The difference
between each of them is several orders of magnitude.
Compared to the others, the effective barrier height between
Si nanowire and tungsten electrode is the smallest and the
Richardson constant of Si is biggest, so under the small bias
voltage the current flowing through the Si nanowire is
biggest relatively, and it’s easier to detect the current in the
actual test.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was financially supported by the National Na
tural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51105267) and
the National Research Foundation for the Doctoral Program
of Higher Education of China (Grant No.20111402120007).
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