Investigation on the barrier height and inhomogeneity of nickel silicide Schottky

The apparent Schottky barrier height (SBH) of the nickel silicide Schottky contacts annealed at different temperatures was investigated based on temperature dependence of I-V characteristic. Thermionic emission-diffusion (TED) theory, single Gaussian and double Gaussian models were employed to fit I-V experimental data. It is found the single Gaussian and double Gaussian SB distribution model can give a very good fit to the I-V characteristic of apparent SBH for different annealing temperatures. Also, the apparent SBH and the leakage current increase with annealing temperatures under reverse voltage. In addition, the homogeneity of interfaces for the samples annealed at temperatures of 500 and 600 °C is much better than that of the samples annealed at temperatures of 400, 700, and 800 °C. This may result from the phase transformation of nickel silicide due to the different annealing temperatures and from the low Schottky barrier (SB) patches.