Demonstration of near-ideal Schottky contacts to Si-doped AlN

Abstract

Near-ideal behavior in Schottky contacts to Si-doped AlN was observed as evidenced by a low ideality factor of 1.5 at room temperature. A temperature-independent Schottky barrier height of 1.9 eV was extracted from temperature-dependent I–V measurements. An activation energy of ∼300 meV was observed in the series resistance, which corresponded to the ionization energy of the deep Si donor state. Both Ohmic and Schottky contacts were stable up to 650 °C, with around four orders of magnitude rectification at this elevated temperature. These results demonstrate the potential of AlN as a platform for power devices capable of operating in extreme environments.