Abstract The current--voltage (I--V) characteristics of Ni silicide/n-Si(100) contacts,which were formed from solid-state reaction of Ni--Si with a thin Ti capping layer at different annealing temperatures, were measured at temperatures ranging from 80K to room temperature. The low temperature I--V curves exhibit an excess current at the low bias region which is significantly larger than that predicted by the traditional thermionic emission (TE) model. A double-Schottky barrier height (SBH) model simplified from Tung's pinch-off model is used to analyse the measured I--V curves, from which the extent of the SBH inhomogeneity can be extracted. Higher annealing temperature results in larger SBH inhomogeneity, implying the degradation of the silicide film uniformity. The thin Ti capping layer increases slightly both the NiSi phase transfer temperature and the thermal stability of the formed NiSi film.
Received: 27 January 2005
Revised: 11 March 2005
Accepted manuscript online:
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