On the formation of a homogeneous barrier at the palladium silicide silicon interface

The Pd2Si/n-Si Schottky barrier diodes were fabricated by depositing palladium on silicon substrate held at 300 K and 573 K. Their current-voltage characteristics were measured in the temperature range 50-307 K. For Schottky diodes fabricated at 300 K the zero-bias barrier height (phi(bo)) decreases and ideality factor (eta) increase with decrease in temperature. On the other hand the diodes fabricated at 573 K exhibit a constant phi(bo), and close to unity eta in the temperature range 170-307 K. Below 170 K, however, the phi(bo), decreases and eta increases rapidly. I is shown that the method adopted here yields a Schottky diode having a homogeneous character with nearly constant phi(bo) and eta over a temperature range of 170-300 K.