title: Metal work-function-dependent barrier height of Ni contacts with metal-embedded nanoparticles to 4H-SiC.
abstract: Metal, typically gold [Au], nanoparticles [NPs] embedded in a capping metal contact layer onto silicon carbide [SiC] are considered to have practical applications in changing the barrier height of the original contacts. Here, we demonstrate the use of silver [Ag] NPs to effectively lower the barrier height of the electrical contacts to 4H-SiC. It has been shown that the barrier height of the fabricated SiC diode structures (Ni with embedded Ag-NPs) has significantly reduced by 0.11 eV and 0.18 eV with respect to the samples with Au-NPs and the reference samples, respectively. The experimental results have also been compared with both an analytic model based on Tung's theory and physics-based two-dimensional numerical simulations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electronic Materials Engineering, Kwangwoon University, 447-1 Wolgye-dong, Nowon-gu, Seoul, 139-701, South Korea. smkoo@kw.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Min-Seok
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.forename: Jung-Joon
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Ahn
authors.forename: Kyoung-Sook
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Moon
authors.forename: Sang-Mo
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Koo