Schottky barrier height measurement of swift heavy ion intermixed Ni–Silicide interface Veenu Sisodia a, * , D. Kabiraj b , I.P. Jain a, * a Centre for Non-Conventional Energy Resources, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur 302004, India b Nuclear Science Centre, Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, New Delhi 110067, India Received 24 December 2003; received in revised form 3 April 2004 Abstract In this paper a correlation is made between the interface chemistry and electrical properties of Ni Schottky barrier contacts to silicon using Current–Voltage technique. Single crystal n-Si substrate of Æ100æ orientation with thin Ni layer were irradiated by Au at 95 MeV and annealed at 300 °C. The data suggests the formation of an interface layer due to swift heavy ion irradiation that contains crystalline NiSi phase. The room temperature I –V curves for different samples and their resistance values are estimated. Ó 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Swift heavy ions; Interface; Irradiation; I –V curves 1. Introduction Transition metal silicides are extensively studied because of their application in silicon technology as ohmic contacts, low resistivity interconnects and Schottky barriers. Moreover, the refractory disili- cides are essentially attractive in such applications because of their high temperature stability and their high electrical conductance [1]. The major interest has been in the group-VIII silicides as NiSi 2 . The phenomenon of Schottky barrier for- mation at semiconductor–metal interfaces has been studied intensively for over four decades, yet re- mains one of the most active areas of solid state physics [2]. In a reactive interface such as silicide–Si interface there is an interfacial layer, which tends to dominate the Schottky barrier height, and we will show a correlation between Schottky barrier height and another interfacial property to support it. The layer should control not only barrier height, but other interfacial properties as well. The Schottky barrier heights of silicides varies from 0.93 eV (IrSi) to 0.55 eV (ZrSi 2 ) [3]. Nickel silicides such as NiSi 2 is one of the few known metallic silicides which closely lattice matches Si (<0.4%) Nickel silicide/Si interface provides a high quality, well-character- ized structure for advancing the understanding of * Corresponding authors. Tel.: +91-141-2701602; fax: +91- 141-2700512/2710880. E-mail addresses: mis_alt@yahoo.com (V. Sisodia), ipjain46 @sify.com (I.P. Jain). 0168-583X/$ - see front matter Ó 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.nimb.2004.04.167 Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 225 (2004) 256–260 www.elsevier.com/locate/nimb