The investigation of structural and electrical analyses of TiO2 films deposited by sputtering method

In this study, the structural and electrical analyses of Au/n-Si Schottky diodes having DC magnetron sputtered TiO2 interfacial layer with thickness of 1500 Å have been investigated. Prior to form metal contacts, in order to improve the crystal quality and to provide the phase transition from amorphous phase to anatase and rutile phases, thermal annealing process was carried out at 700 ? C and 900 ? C in air ambient. The structural analyses of annealed samples were investigated by high resolution X-ray diffraction (HRXRD) to check whether or not the phase transition was completed with annealing. As a result of HRXRD measurements, the phase transition from amorphous phase to anatase phase at 700 ? C was observed while from amorphous phase to rutile phase was observed at 900 ? C. Also, the main electrical parameters of Au/n-Si Schottky diodes with anatase and rutile phases TiO2 interfacial layer, such as ideality factor (n), leakage current (IL), barrier height ( ? B), series resistance (Rs), shunt resistance (Rsh) and interface states (Nss) were obtained from current-voltage (I-V) and capacitance-voltage (C-V) characteristics at room temperature and the obtained results have been compared with each other. The experimental results show that Au/TiO2/n-Si Schottky diode with rutile phases TiO2 interfacial layer have better device performance and is more suitable for such device applications.