Barrier inhomogeneities and interface states of metal/4H-SiC Schottky contacts

The barrier and interface states of Ti, Mo, Ni, and Pt contacts to 4H-SiC were investigated. It is found that the barrier heights for all the contacts are Gaussianly distributed and the barrier inhomogeneity varies with the contact metal type. However, the energy-averaged interface states density in the band gap is metal-insensitive. When considering Gaussian distribution, the interface states density extracted from the electrical properties is consistent with the average density of Gaussianly distributed 4H-SiC surface states, indicating that the barrier inhomogeneities at metal/SiC contacts mainly originate from the spatial variation of surface states on SiC surface. The barrier height and barrier inhomogeneity could be modulated by the contact metal, obeying the barrier height theory of Cowley and Sze. (C) 2016 The Japan Society of Applied Physics