Current transport mechanism in Au-<i>p</i>-MgO-Ni Schottky device designed for microwave sensing

Abstract

Au/MgO/Ni back to back Schottky tunnelling barriers are designed on the surface of an MgO thin layer and are electrically characterized. The current voltage curve analysis has shown that thermionic emission, field effect thermionic (FET) emission and space charge limited current are dominant transport mechanism in distinct biasing regions. It was shown that, while the device is reverse biased with voltages less than 0.31 V, it conducts by tunnelling (FED though an energy barrier of 0.88 eV with a depletion region width of 15.7 nm. As the voltage exceeds 0.46 V, the tunnelling energy barrier is lowered to 0.76 eV and the depletion region widens and arrives at the reach-through running mode. The device was tested in the microwave electromagnetic power range that extends from Bluetooth to WLAN radiation levels at oscillating frequencies of 0.5 and 2.9 GHz. In addition, a low power resonating signal that suits mobile data is superimposed in the device. It was observed that the Au/MgO/Au sensors exhibit a wide tunability range via voltage biasing or via frequency control. The signal quality factor is 3.53 x 10(3) at 2.9 GHz. These properties reflect applicability in microwave technology as wireless and connectorized microwave amplifiers, microwave resonators and mixers.