Investigations on the annealing behavior of high-energy carbon irradiated Au/n-GaAs Schottky barrier diodes

Au Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) have been irradiated using high-energy ca rbon ion fluences of 1 x 10(11), 1 x 10(12) and 1 x 10(13)cm(-2). Current-v oltage characteristics of unirradiated and irradiated diodes have been anal yzed. The change in reverse leakage current increases with increasing ion f luence due to the irradiation-induced defects at the interface. The diodes were annealed at 523 and 623 K to study the effect of annealing. The rectif ying behavior of the irradiated SBDs improves at 523 K. But at 623 K, the d iode behavior deteriorates irrespective of the fluences, Better enhancement in the barrier height and also improvement in the ideality factor of the d iodes has been observed at the annealing temperature of 523 K. Scanning Ele ctron Microscopic analysis was carried out on the irradiated samples to del ineate the projected range of the defects by high-energy carbon ion irradia tion. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.