Intermediate Layer in the Metal-Silicon Carbide Contact

Metal-semiconductor contacts are an obvious component of semiconductor device. The current-voltage characteristics of actual metal-semiconductor Schottky-barrier contacts are known to differ from the ideal ones. Considerable scientific interest has been devoted to this situation since the last century. One of the most probable reasons of this deviation is the presence of an intermediate layer between the metal and semiconductor. The presence of interface layer may lead to such effects as the potential drop at the interface layer and barrier lowering, reduction of space charge region, the tunnelling of the electrons through the barrier, and all this, in turn, may be the reason of strong discrepancy in real electrical characteristics of metal-semiconductor contacts. The theme of this thesis is devoted to investigation of the intermediate layer in the metal-semiconductor contact obtained by diffusion welding (DW).