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The extremal operating states of the active elements of integrated circuits and discrete devices as well as the different actions on semiconductor devices with a Schottky barrier based on metal silicide-silicon contacts lead to a change in their physical parameters. In this work the effect of impulsive overloads on a formed platinum silicide-silicon contact is studied. It is shown, with the help of analytical expressions for the currents in the superbarrier region and in the region of resonant tunneling charge transfer, that under impulsive action a change occurs in both the transitional layer and in the region of space charge; the change is associated with the increase in the concentration of deep levels in the region of space charge that participate in the resonance tunneling. Estimates of the Joule heating by the current flowing in the structures employed do not exceed 100°C, indicating that defect formation under the impulsive actions is nonthermal.

By solving for the potential barrier profile in metal-amorphous silicon contacts using an exponential distribution of the density of states in the energy spectrum mobility gap, we compute the voltage-current characteristics of such contacts taking into account tunneling through the space charge region. We demonstrate that as the density of states in the middle of the mobility gap increases, such tunneling leads to significant changes in the rectifying properties of a metal-amorphous silicon contact.

In the paper an analytic calculation is carried out of the volt-ampere characteristics of a Schottky barrier diode on amorphous silicon for an exponential distribution of the density of localized states in the mobility gap of α-Si. Explicit expressions are written for the volt-ampere characteristics with and without the inclusion of the image forces. It is shown that taking into account the image forces in the case of an intimate contact can lead to a substantial increase in the reverse currents through the diode, at the same time changing slightly the slope of both the forward and reverse branches of the volt-ampere characteristics plotted on a semilogarithmic scale.

Results are presented of an investigation of the possibility of realizing the tunnel-resonance current transport mechanism in metal-semiconductor junctions. From an analysis of the temperature dependence of the current-voltage characteristic, it is concluded that the experimental singularities being observed in titanium-palladium-doped silicon junctions correspond to effects predicted by the theory of tunnel-resonance charge transport mechanism.