Improved Pt/Au and W/Pt/Au Schottky contacts on n-type ZnO using ozone cleaning

UV-ozone cleaning prior to metal deposition of either e-beam Pt contacts or sputtered W contacts on n-type single-crystal ZnO is found to significantly improve their rectifying characteristics. Pt contacts deposited directly on the as-received ZnO surface are Ohmic but show rectifying behavior with ozone cleaning. The Schottky barrier height of these Pt contacts was 0.70 eV, with ideality factor of 1.5 and a saturation current density of 6.2x10(-6) A cm(-2). In contrast, the as-deposited W contacts are Ohmic, independent of the use of ozone cleaning. Postdeposition annealing at 700degreesC produces rectifying behavior with Schottky barrier heights of 0.45 eV for control samples and 0.49 eV for those cleaned with ozone exposure. The improvement in rectifying properties of both the Pt and W contacts is related to removal of surface carbon contamination from the ZnO. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.