Schottky barrier height reduction for metal/n-GaSb contact by inserting TiO2 interfacial layer with low tunneling resistance

Fermi level pinning near GaSb valence band edge leads to high Schottky barrier height for metal/n-type GaSb contacts. However, this effect can be alleviated by depinning of the Fermi level with the introduction of thin interfacial dielectric. In this paper, the use of TiO2 allows depinning of the Fermi level without introducing excessive tunneling resistance due to the low conduction band offset, estimated by synchrotron radiation photoemission spectroscopy. It is shown the insertion of TiO2 results in reduction in Schottky barrier height and greater than four orders of magnitude increase in current density for metal contacts on n-type GaSb. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.358486]