Improved electrical performance of erbium silicide Schottky diodes formed by Pre-RTA amorphization of Si

Erbium silicide Schottky diodes formed on Si(001) substrate using rapid thermal annealing method show degraded Schottky-barrier height φ_Beff and ideality factor n due to the presence of silicide-induced microstructural defects which are likely sources of trap states. A method to improve the φ_Beff and n of the diodes utilizing in situ Ar plasma cleaning to induce a light amorphization of the Si(001) substrate is proposed. Even though the diodes formed in this way are less textured and have a poorer interface, they are free of silicide-induced microstructural defects, leading to an overall improvement in current transport and conduction properties which can be modeled using inhomogenous Schottky contact model.