Abstract
Graphitic contacts to semiconductors have been shown to provide highly rectifying current-voltage characteristics coupled with high thermal/chemical stability. Energetically deposited graphitic contacts to p-type Si have exhibited rectification ratios (at +/- 1.0 V) up to 10(6):1 and ideality factors approaching unity. Here, we report temperature dependent current-voltage (I-V-T) measurements performed on such devices. The measurements and subsequent analysis show that during energetic carbon deposition, deleterious oxide/contaminants are removed from the Si substrate surface. The Richardson constant of the p-type Si extracted from the I-V-T measurements agrees with the theoretical value, indicating that the surface contaminants are removed without significant damage to the underlying Si. Therefore, by energetic deposition of C on Si, C-Si junctions can be formed with low lateral inhomogeneity and low interface defect density. These attributes of the junctions enable the observed near-ideal Schottky diode characteristics.