Modification of metal/semiconductor junctions by self-assembled monolayer organic films

Abstract

Two new metal/molecule/semiconductor contacts, Au/n-Si/TDA/Au and Au/p-Si/ODM/Au, were fabricated to understand effect of organic compounds, tridecylamine and octadecylmercaptan self-assembled monolayer (SAM) films, on electrical charge transport properties of the metal/semiconductor junctions. The morphology of the organic monolayers deposited on Si substrates was investigated by atomic force microscopy. The molecular coverage of ODM deposited on p-Si is poorer than that of TDA on n-Si substrate. The ideality factors of the p-Si/ODM and n-Si/TDA diodes were found to be 1.66 and 1.48, respectively. The electrical results show that the tridecylamine monolayer passivated junction has a lower ideality factor. The ideality factor indicates clear dependence on two different type functional groups R-SH (Thiol) and R-NH2 (Amin) groups and it increases with different functional groups of organic molecule. The barrier height phi(b) value of the n-Si/TDA diode is smaller than that of p-Si/ODM diode, as a result of chain length of the SAM organic molecules. The interface state density D-it values of the diodes were determined using conductance technique. The n-Si/TDA diode has the smaller interface state density according to p-Si/ODM diode. We have evaluated that the organic molecules control the electronic parameters of metal/semiconductor diodes and thus, organic modification helps to get one step closer towards to new organic assisted silicon based microelectronic devices. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.