Forward tunneling current in Pt/p-InGaN and Pt/n-InGaN Schottky barriers in a wide temperature range

The current-transport mechanisms of the Pt contacts on p-InGaN and n-InGaN were investigated in a wide temperature range (80-360 K) and in the forward bias regime. It was found that the ideality factor (n) values and Schottky barrier heights (SBHs), as determined by thermionic emission (TE), were a strong function of temperature and Phi(b0) show the unusual behavior of increasing linearly with an increase in temperature from 80 to 360 K for both Schottky contacts. The tunneling saturation (J(TU)(0)) and tunneling parameters (E-0) were calculated for both Schottky contacts. We observed a weak temperature dependence of the saturation current and a fairly small dependence on the temperature of the tunneling parameters in this temperature range. The results indicate that the dominant mechanism of the charge transport across the Pt/p-InGaN and Pt/n-InGaN Schottky contacts are electron tunneling to deep levels in the vicinity of mixed/screw dislocations in the temperature range of 80-360 K. (c) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.