High energy electron radiation effect on Ni and Ti/4H-SiC Schottky barrier diode at room temperature

This paper reports that Ni and Ti/4H-SiC Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) were fabricated and irradiated with 1 MeV electrons up to a dose of 3.43×10¹⁴ e/cm². After radiation, the Schottky barrier height \phi _\rm B of the Ni/4H-SiC SBD increased from 1.20 eV to 1.21 eV, but decreased from 0.95 eV to 0.94 eV for the Ti/4H-SiC SBD. The degradation of \phi _\rm B could be explained by interface states of changed Schottky contacts. The on-state resistance R_S of both diodes increased with the dose, which can be ascribed to the radiation defects. The reverse current of the Ni/4H-SiC SBD slightly increased, but for the Ti/4H-SiC SBD it basically remained the same. At room temperature, \phi _\rm B of the diodes recovered completely after one week, and the R_S partly recovered.