Conduction mechanism for sputtered a-C:H based structures

Metal–insulator–metal (MIM) and metal–insulator–semiconductor (MIS) structures fabricated by magnetron sputtering deposition of insulating hydrogenated amorphous carbon are analyzed by measuring their current–voltage characteristics in order to find the conduction mechanism. For MIM structures, the linearity of the logarithmic dependencies between current density and electric field intensity (log J–log E) for higher fields indicate a space charge limited current (SCLC) conduction mechanism. The calculated values of the effective mobility are in agreement with other literature results. For MIS structures, the power-law dependence between current and voltage also indicate a space–charge limited currents based conduction mechanism.