Aluminium Schottky barriers on sputter-etched silicon

Schottky barriers have been prepared by sputter-etching a silicon surface immediately prior to the deposition, by sputtering, of an aluminium electrode. The barrier height measured on these diodes is nearly identical to the height found previously for barriers made by cleaving silicon in a vacuum in a stream of evaporating aluminium species. This suggests that the barrier height is controlled by surface states.