TRANSPORT OF MAJORITY AND MINORITY CARRIERS IN 2- mu m-DIAMETER Pt-GaAs SCHOTTKY BARRIERS.

Abstract

An experimental study of small area (2- mu m-diameter) Pt-GaAs Schottky barrier diodes has been made, by using a wafer chip with a matrix of these diodes lying within approximately a minority carrier diffusion length of one another. Using one diode as collector and another as emitter, transistor measurements indicated that the dominant contribution to the current is the majority-carrier thermiconic field emission current for large forward-bias voltage whereas the smaller forward-bias recombination in the space-charge region was most important. The minority carrier injection ratio is measurable only for large forward-bias voltages, decreasing from approximately equals 10** minus **2 to 10** minus **5 as V//E//B increases from 0. 5 to 1. 0 V. The minority carrier diffusion length was measured to be L//p approximately equals 1. 3 mu m. These results are of considerable significance for the understanding and optimization of the performance of these devices as classical detectors and mixers.