Chemicophysical surface treatment and the experimental demonstration of Schottky-Mott rules for metal/semiconductor heterostructure interfaces.

Metal/semiconductor (MS) heterostructure is of wide interest in a number of areas including physics, chemistry, materials science, materials engineering, chemical engineering, and electrical engineering. It is an important element of modern technology. The present investigation describes a novel experimental technique to address the influence of interfacial chemical passivation on the Schottky-Mott [Naturwiss. 26, 843 (1938); Cambridge Philos. Soc. 34, 568 (1938)] rules for MS heterostructure, and to try to establish these rules. The success of the experiment derives from three remarkable findings: First, a semiconductor (Al(x)Ga(1-x)N), which is robust and relatively less susceptible to an easy reaction with foreign chemicals, is needed for the demonstration. Second, reactive ion etching together with wet chemical etching by certain selected chemical (such as KOH), but not by others (for example, H(3)PO(4) or aqua regia), can clean the semiconductor surface well, and remove/passivate the dangling chemical bonds from this surface. Third, a judicious selection of deposition parameters for the deposition of metal(s) preferably on a certain selected semiconductor can lead to metal deposition on the semiconductor surface by van der Waals type of epitaxy. Transmission electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction indicate that MS heterostructures, thus prepared, are very different from others; they appear to provide convincing experimental verification of the Schottky-Mott rules, and to establish these rules without any ambiguity. Others fail to do it.