Introduction

Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) are a family of compound semiconductors1 that

were discovered, and quickly forgotten, in the early 1960’s. Their chemical compound consists
of a transition metal - most notably molybdenum (Mo), and tungsten (W), and a chalcogen2 -
such as sulphour (S), selenium (Se) or tellurium (Te). Their crystallographic structure is of three-
atoms-thick sheets, where the metal atoms are “sandwiched” between two sheets of chalcogens
in a hexagonal lattice.
In this manuscript you will analyse Schottky junction behaviour, calculate the barrier height and
estimate the degree of Fermi level pinning, from raw data acquired in 2017-2018.
Experimental Procedure
Fig. 1 (a) shows an AFM micrograph of one of the typical devices on which this lab is based.
The light shaded material in the middle is the MoTe2 flake. Its thickness of 4 nm suggests that it
is composed of five layers. Two metallic electrodes are attached to this device. In this case, the
metal is palladium. The flake of MoTe2 was mechanically exfoliated (peeled by sheering) from a
small crystal and deposited on a highly doped silicon chip, covered with a thermal silicon oxide
layer, 30 nm in thickness. The silicon chip acts as the gate electrode and the oxide as the gate
dielectric. As the silicon is highly doped, we can assume that none of the gate voltage drops
over the silicon itself.
Following the deposition of MoTe2 on the silicon oxide, various metal electrodes were deposited
by means of lithography and metal evaporation. The device was measured at cryogenic
temperature ranging from 40 to 80 K at 5 K intervals. Before the measurement at each
temperature, the device Id-Vg characteristics was measured. The threshold voltage was
determined using an extrapolation of the linear part of the curve, and subsequent
measurements were all done at a constant Vg - Vth to ensure that the location of the Fermi level
in the semiconductor is consistent. The Id-Vg measurements are not provided to you and should
not be part of your analysis. You would be justified to ask at this point how is it that we do not
see a back-to-back diode profile, given that the two metal electrodes are identical and should
form symmetric interfaces.

Figure 1: (a) An AFM micrograph of the measured device. The topography scan along the
dashed line is in the inset. (b) The measurement configuration of the device.
Fig. 1 (b) shows the measurement configuration. The separation between the electrodes was
roughly 1 µm, conforming with the small size of MoTe2 flakes, which are very brittle. The devices
were sourced with a DC bias, sweeping between -20 and +20 V. While the bias was swept at both
directions (from negative to positive and back), little-to-no hysteresis was observed, due to the
cryogenic conditions. At these temperatures, the capture-emission dynamics of deep level traps
is extremely slow with respect to the measurement speed. We therefore regard this as a quasi-
static experiment, i.e., it is not time dependent.
The voltage-current characteristics of an ideal Schottky junction is remarkably similar to that of a
p-n junction diode, and follows the Shockley equation:

Where ID is the diode current, VD is the voltage drop over the junction, q is the elementary
charge, kB is Boltzmann’s constant, T is the temperature, and IS is the (reverse) saturation
current, which for a Schottky diode is given by:

Where A is the cross-sectional surface area of the device, A ∗ is the modified Richardson constant and ΦB is the metal-semiconductor barrier height. The modified Richardson constant is A ∗ =
4πqm∗k2h-3 but its determination is a source of divisive controversies, since the effective mass is that of the thermionic emission process. For thermionic emission to free space (vacuum), A =

120 Acm-2K -2.

One thing we can safely assume about a thin-flake device made from a chemically unstable
material is that it would be as far from ideal behaviour as possible. In this device we need to
account for series and shunt (parallel) sources of resistance, and for non-idealities of the
junction itself. Textbooks on semiconductor devices usually add the ideality factor n to the
denominator of the argument in the exponent:

In good quality devices, this usually ranges between n = 1 for an ideal device behaviour, to n =
2 in devices where generation recombination currents affect the performance. In this
experiment, we will use n in the same manner, but n corrects here, in part, for other
phenomena, such as the Fermi level pinning, and we can therefore expect that its value will be
significantly larger than 2. The total applied bias VA is divided between the drop on the junction
and the drop on the series resistance of the device, Rs, as VA = VD + Vs, and Vs = IDRs. It is,
therefore, advisable to correct the diode equation to include the series resistance:

Finally, the experimental fabrication procedures used here, which are far less robust than those
used in industry, mean that parallel current paths (shunt currents) are observable at times in
these devices. The shunt currents Ip can be incorporated into the equation by assuming a shunt
resistor Rp so that Ip = VA=Rp. The total current measured is then I = ID + Ip or:
The data provided to you includes I-V measurements for devices with four different metal contacts:
gold (Au), chromium (Cr), titanium (Ti) and palladium (Pd). You may choose to work on all metals or
fewer. The quality of the analysis is of much greater importance than the quantity.
The tasks of the lab are given below.
1) For each I-V scans you are analysing, determine first the shunt resistance, Rp, the
series resistance Rs and the ideality factor n. Refer to the appendix of this manuscript for advice
on how to approach this problem.
The aim of this set of experimental data is to determine the Schottky barrier height for metal Gold,
Chromium, Titanium, and Palladium interfaces, done as function of temperature with different
metals. These are the semiconductors from the family of the transition metal dichalcogenides which
is predicted to transition soon from the research benches to industrial use.
First Experiment:
Graph and calculations for the gold are given as:

Shunt resistance:
Assuming the applied voltage as a constant value.
Slope= 1 = 10−5 = 5
ℎ 40−20 20

ℎ =4 − ℎ

Series resistance:
Assuming the two point on the I-V curve. −1
2
=
2− 1

18 − 16 2

= = − ℎ

90 − 35 55

Ideality factor:
Ideality factor can be calculated as. = ( −1)
20
122 = 122.55( .20 − 1)
 = 1.9
Graph and calculations for the Chromium are given as:

Shunt resistance:
Assuming the applied voltage as a constant value.
Slope= 1 =1−0 = 1
ℎ 5−0 5

ℎ = 0.2 m-ohm

Series resistance:
Assuming the two point on the I-V curve. −1
2
=
2− 1

= 184−−116 = 32 m-ohm

Ideality factor:
Ideality factor can be calculated as. = ( −1)
20
6 = 5.5 ( − 1)
.20
=1

Second Experiment:
Graph and calculations for the gold are given as:
Shunt resistance:
Assuming the applied voltage as a constant value.
Slope= 1 = 5−0 = 5
ℎ 20−0 20

ℎ =4 − ℎ

Series resistance:
Assuming the two point on the I-V curve. −1
2
=
2− 1

18 − 16 2

= = − ℎ

90 − 35 55

Ideality factor:
Ideality factor can be calculated as. = ( −1)
20
122 = 122.75( .20 − 1)

= 1.95

Graph and calculations for the Chromium are given as:

Shunt resistance:
Assuming the applied voltage as a constant value.
Slope= 1 = 2−1 = 1
ℎ 10−5 5

ℎ = 0.2 − ℎ

Series resistance:
Assuming the two point on the I-V curve. −1
2
=
2− 1

5 −1 4

= = =2 − ℎ

19 − 15 2

Ideality factor:
Ideality factor can be calculated as. = ( −1)
20
5.80 = 5.43( .20 − 1)

= 1.51

The other factors of titanium and palladium can be calculated just like gold and chromium for
both experiments.
2) Extract the saturation current from each of the curves. It is highly recommended that you
automate the procedure by writing an appropriate script.

First Experiment:
Saturation current for gold can be calculated as:
At 80k temperature
= 80(3 + 12) −
 1 −23
= 80(3 + 2) = 122.55
−1.38×10 ×80

Saturation current for chromium can be calculated as:

At 80k temperature
= 80(3 + 12) −
1
= 80(3 + 2) −1.38×10 −23×80
= 5.5

Second Experiment:
Saturation current for gold can be calculated as:
At 75k temperature
= 75(3 + 12) −
1
= 75(3 + 2) −1.38×10 −23×75
= 80

Saturation current for chromium can be calculated as:

At 75k temperature
= 75(3 + 12) −
1
= 75(3 + 2) −1.38×10 −23×75
= 5.80

3) Follow the procedure described in the lecture and the lecture notes to calculate the
Schottky barrier height, ΦB, for each of the metals you work on. Compare your result with the
expected value, assuming that MoTe2 has a band gap of Eg = 1.0 eV and an electron affinity of
χ = 3.78 eV. Discuss the reasons for differences if there are any.
First Experiment:
The Schottky barrier height, ΦB, for gold can be calculated as:
At 80k Temperature
−
= × ∗×( )
1

ln( ) = ln( × ∗) − −
 ln ( 2)
1
= − ( )
1
ln ( )

. 20 d(
1
2)
= − (1.38 × 10−23 ) 80

1.9 1
d(80 )
= 30

The Schottky barrier height, , for Chromium can be calculated as:

At 80k temperature

= × ∗×(

∗ −

ln( ) = ln( × )−

ln (
2

= − (

ln (
1
20 d( 2)
= − (1.38 × 10−23) 80
1 1
d( 80 )

= 38

Second Experiment:
The Schottky barrier height, ΦB, for gold can be calculated as:
At 70k Temperature
−
= × ∗×( )
1
−

ln( ) = ln( × ∗) − −

1
ln ( 2)
= − ( )
1
ln ( )

. 20 d(
1
2)
= − (1.38 × 10−23 ) 70

1.95 1
d(70 )
= 29.3

The Schottky barrier height, , for Chromium can be calculated as:

At 70k temperature
−
= × ∗×( )
1
−

ln( ) = ln( × ∗) − −

1
ln ( 2)
= − ( )
1
ln ( )

20 d(
1
2)
= − (1.38 × 10 −23 ) 70

1.5 1
d(70 )
= 36.5

Similarly, Schottky barrier height, , for Titanium and Palladium can be calculated by using the
above methods.
MoTe2 metal has the good values of Schottky barrier height, , which means it is a good metal
rather than the other metals.

4) Follow the lecture notes to determine the degree of Fermi level pinning. It is
recommended that you use a minimum of three metals for this calculation, but two could suffice
if time is too short. Discuss your finding considering the previously mentioned tellurium-vacancy
traps.
The Fermi level pinning of the metals can be calculated as:
First Experiment:
Fermi level of Gold.
, = − 0
0= −
,
As we know that: = +
, ,

So, the equation becomes: = + −

0 , , ,
=
0 ,

0 = 30.5

Fermi level of Chromium.

, = − 0
= −
0 ,
As we know that: = +
, ,

So, the equation becomes: = + −

0 , , ,
=
0 ,

0 =39

Second Experiment:
Fermi level of Gold.
, = − 0
0 = − ,

As we know that: = +
, ,

So, the equation becomes: = + −

0 , , ,
=
0 ,

0 = 29.3

Fermi level of Chromium.

, = − 0
0= −
,
As we know that: = +
, ,

So, the equation becomes: = + −

0 , , ,
=
0 ,

0 = 36.5

Similarly, the Fermi level of other metals can be calculated as above.

5) What could you conclude on the use of MoTe2 as an electronic device? Could there be
any advantage to these characteristics?
It is concluded that MoTe2 is the most important metal and has the more values of Schottky barrier height, ΦB, and Fermi level, 0, rather than the other metals.
Due to high properties of the parameters this metal can be used to design the good quality
transistors, which are the most important and usable semiconductor devices.