The metal-semiconductor interface

Abstract

Interfaces between metal and semiconductor may be found almost everywhere in contemporary electronics. Often the metal is there just to serve as a contact to p-n junctions in the semiconductor. At other times, the metal-semiconductor interface itself performs essential electronic functions. Considerable scientific interest has been devoted to this latter situation since early in the century, as discussed by Welker (1) in the previous volume of this series. This early work led to a rather simple and classical model, in which an electrostatic barrier o arises within the semiconductor and produces the rectifying behavior. The barrier o is called the Schottky barrier or Schottky-Mott barrier in remembrance of that work. The prediction of o has proven not to be so simple, however, whether in terms of other phenomena (such as work functions) or terms of fundamental theories. It is to the various contemporary aspects of this problem that the present review is principally devoted.

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