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Effect of annealing temperature on structural and electrical properties of Al/Nb-doped TiO2 Schottky diodes on Pt–Si substrates

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Abstract

The Nb-doped TiO2 (NTO) thin films were deposited on Pt-coated Si substrates for fabrication of Al/NTO Schottky diodes using RF magnetron sputtering technique. The effects of annealing temperature on the microstructure, surface morphological and electrical properties are systematically investigated. X-ray diffraction pattern shows that the crystallinity of NTO thin films can be improved by adjusting the annealing temperature. The surface morphological analysis shows that the grain size and roughness can be affected by the annealing temperature. According to I–V characteristics, the ideal factor, barrier height and series resistance of Al/NTO Schottky diodes calculated by various methods are consistent well. The ideal factor and series resistance decrease with annealing temperature rising from 200 to 600 °C. When the NTO thin films are annealed at 600 °C, the Al/NTO Schottky diodes have good rectifying behaviors with an ideal factor of 4.97, a Schottky barrier height of 1.04 eV and a relatively low series resistance of 235 Ω. These results indicate that the prepared Al/NTO Schottky diodes have potential application prospects in rectifying devices.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 61701338), Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin City (Grant No. 18JCQNJC01300), Foundation (B) for Peiyang Scholar-Young Core Faculty of Tianjin University (Grant No. 2018XRG-0020), Scientific Research Foundation for High-Level Talents (Innovative Team) of Dongguan University of Technology (Grant No. KCYCXPT2017003).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Microelectronics and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Imaging and Sensing Microelectronic Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072, People’s Republic of China

    Shihui Yu, Chunmei Zhang, Pan Yang & Lingxia Li

  2. School of Electronic Engineering and Intelligentization, Dongguan University of Technology, Dongguan, 523808, Guangdong, China

    Muying Wu

  3. Department of Mechanics and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Nonlinear Dynamics and Control, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 30050, China

    Yongtao Sun

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  1. Shihui Yu
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Yu, S., Zhang, C., Yang, P. et al. Effect of annealing temperature on structural and electrical properties of Al/Nb-doped TiO2 Schottky diodes on Pt–Si substrates. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 30, 18287–18295 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-019-02183-2

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