WN_x Diodes on Plasma-Treated GaAs Surfaces

The formation of WNx Schottky diodes on GaAs surfaces with various interface conditions was investigated by performing H2-and N2-plasma treatments on GaAs surfaces prior to the WNx film deposition. After annealing at 810°C for 10 min, an improvement in the diode rectifying characteristics was generally observed, resulting from the thermal recovery of the sputtering and plasma-induced damage. The maximum Фt-v = 0.76 eV was obtained for the H2-plasma-treated diodes. Samples with an N2-plasma-treated interface showed a reduced barrier height and a higher ideality factor with corresponding nonlinearity in the C-V curves due to the presence of a high density of inter-facial states. © 1989 IEEE