Ballistic electron emission spectroscopy on Ag/Si devices

In this work we report on ballistic electron emission spectroscopy (BEES) studies on epitaxial layers of silver grown on silicon surfaces, with either a Si(111)-(7 × 7) or Si(100)-(2 × 1) surface reconstruction. The experiments were done at low temperature and in ultra-high vacuum (UHV). In addition, BEES measurements on polycrystalline Ag films grown on hydrogen-terminated H:Si(111)-(1 × 1) and H:Si(100)-(2 × 1) surfaces were performed. The Schottky barrier heights were evaluated by BEES. The results are compared to the values for the barrier height reported for macroscopic Schottky diodes. We show that the barrier heights for the epitaxial films substantially differ from the values measured on polycrystalline Ag films, suggesting a strong effect of the interface on the barrier height.