Effect of atomically controlled interfaces on Fermi-level pinning at metal/Ge interfaces

We study electrical properties of metal/Ge contacts with an atomically controlled interface, and compare them with those with a disordered one, where atomically controlled interfaces can be demonstrated by using Fe3Si/Ge(111) contacts. We find that the Schottky barrier height of Fe3Si/n-Ge(111) contacts is unexpectedly lower than those induced by the strong Fermi-level pinning at other metal/n-Ge contacts. For Fe3Si/p-Ge(111) contacts, we identify clear rectifying behavior in I-V characteristics at low temperatures, which is also different from I-V features due to the strong Fermi-level pinning at other metal/p-Ge contacts. These results indicate that there is an extrinsic contribution such as dangling bonds to the Fermi-level pinning effect at the directly connected metal/Ge contacts. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3368701]