Nanometer-Scale Investigation of Metal-SiC Interfaces using Ballistic Electron Emission Microscopy

H.-J. Im, B. Kaczer, and J. P. Pelz
Department of Physics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210
S. Limpijumnong, W. R. L. Lambrecht,
Department of Physics, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106
W. J. Choyke
Department of Physics, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260

(Received Novermber 4, 1997; accepted December 18 1997)

We report ballistic-electron emission microscopy (BEEM) investigation of Pd, Pt Schottky contacts on 6H-, 4H-SiC and Pd/15R-SiC. Measured Schottky barrier heights (SBH's) of 6H- and 4H-SiC samples appear spatially uniform up to the fitting error due to noise (0.03--0.04 eV and 0.1--0.2 eV for 6H- and 4H-SiC, respectively). In 4H-SiC, we observed an additional conduction band minimum (CBM) ~ 0.14 eV above the lowest CBM, which provide direct experimental verification of band theoretical calculation results. Additionally, we sometimes observed enhancement in ballistic transmittance over regions intentionally stressed by hot electron injection using BEEM. We also report recent results on Pd/15R-SiC sample indicating a higher CBM ~ 0.5 eV above the lowest CBM. In Pd/15R-SiC, interesting large variations in BEEM spectra at different locations were observed, possibly suggesting an inhomogeneous metal/semiconductor interface.