Controlling the electrical characteristics of Au/n-Si structures by interfacial insulator layer

Admittance (C-V and G/omega-V) measurements of Au/n-Si (metal-semiconductor, MS) and Au/SnO2/n-Si (metal-insulator-semiconductor, MIS) structures were carried out between 1 kHz and 1 MHz at room temperature to investigate the interfacial insulator layer effect on the electrical characteristics of Au/n-Si structures. Experimental results showed that MIS structure's capacitance (C) values, unlike those of MS structure, became stable especially at high frequencies in the accumulation region. Also, the insulator layer caused structure's shunt resistance (R-sh) to increase. It was found that series resistance (R-s) is more effective in the accumulation region at high frequencies after the correction was applied to C and G/omega) data to eliminate the R-s effect. The density of interface states (D-is) was obtained using Hill-Coleman method, D-is values MIS structure was obtained smaller than those of MS structure. Results indicate that interfacial insulator layer brings about some improvements in electrical characteristics of Au/n-Si structures. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.