A BALLISTIC-ELECTRON-EMISSION MICROSCOPY (BEEM) STUDY OF THE BARRIER HEIGHT CHANGE OF AU N-GAAS SCHOTTKY CONTACTS DUE TO MECHANICAL POLISHING/

Ballistic electron emission microscopy (BEEM) has been applied, togeth er with more classical methods such as current-voltage and capacitance -voltage measurements, to determine the barrier height change of Au/n- GaAs due to mechanical polishing. An increase of the barrier height is found, which is explained by the passivation of Fermi level pinning d efects by hydrogen. Further evidence for the interaction of hydrogen w ith the semiconductor is given. It is shown that BEEM is an important technique for the measurement of barrier height changes caused by semi conductor processing which deteriorates the electrical characteristics of the devices and consequently leads to a failure of the more classi cal methods.