EFFECT OF TRAPPING STATES ON TUNNELING IN METAL-SEMICONDUCTOR JUNCTIONS

The tunneling behavior of Schottky barriers has been investigated by several authors. The I-V characteristics exhibit an exponential form in the forward direction which can be used to determine the energy vs complex momentum dispersion relation for charge carriers in the forbidden gap. In this paper we show that under proper conditions the presence of traps can increase the tunneling probability and result in a reduction in the slope of the log I vs V characteristic by a factor of 2. © 1969 The American Institute of Physics.