The Schottky-barrier height of the contacts between some rare-earth metals (and silicides) and <i>p</i>-type silicon

Abstract

Some rare-earth elements, Tb, Er, Yb (including Y) and some of their respective silicides were found to make ohmic contacts to n-type silicon. Forward I/V and photoresponse measurements give values of about 0.7 eV for the Schottky-barrier height to p-type silicon. The sum of this value and of the experimentally estimated barrier height to n-type silicon, 0.4 eV, corresponds to the band gap of silicon.