Analysis of I-V measurements on CrSi2-Si Schottky structures in a wide temperature range - Comment

Recently, the current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of CrSi2/(111) n-Si Schottky junctions measured in the temperature range of 90-350 K were analyzed by Barus and Donoval. They obtained temperature ideality factors and apparent barrier heights by using the pure thermionic emission (TE) theory. They presented a correct explanation of these features by taking into account some other possible current mechanisms, namely, the generation-recombination and the thermoionic-field emission (TFE). This paper proposes another alternative explanation of this behavior. It analyzes the temperature dependence of the ideality factor and apparent barrier height evaluated by TE theory for several Schottky junctions, and it concludes that it may often explained assuming the domination of current flow by TFE with anomalously high characteristic energies.