Transparent contacts to β-SiC for optical electronic device applications

Transparent indium tin oxide (ITO)/beta-silicon carbide (β-SiC) Schottky barrier and ohmic contact have been successfully fabricated by sputtering ITO films on rapid thermal chemical vapor deposition (RTCVD) prepared β-SiC grown heteroepitaxially on a (111) silicon substrate. The transmission line method (TLM) was used to determine the specific contact resistance of the ITO/n-SiC ohmic contact for varying operation temperatures. It was found that the specific contact resistance is 0.56 ω cm 2 for a temperature of 300 K and decreases with increasing temperature. The indium (In)/n-SiC, NiCr/n-SiC ohmic contact systems were also developed for comparison purposes. In addition, the influence of operating temperature on the C - V characteristics of the ITO/p-SiC Schottky barrier was studied. It reveals that the ideality factor n is in the range of 1.44–2.3 for temperature ranging from 300 to 473 K. The barrier height φ B ( C - V ) is 1.61−1.23 eV with varying operation temperature from 300 to 473 K for C - V measurement.