Determination of leakage resistance of Schottky contacts by photovoltage measurements

Abstract

The leakage resistance of Schottky contacts has been determined from photovoltage measurements, thus allowing the contribution of the leakage current to the current transport in the Schottky contacts to be easily evaluated. It is found that under identical conditions of sample fabrication, different Schottky contacts have nearly the same leakage resistance. A comparison between a theoretical calculation and experimental data for the photocurrent-photovoltage relationship shows that the leakage current becomes dominant at low temperatures and small photocurrents. In these regimes, the current transport is dominated by the leakage current, and as a result, a linear relation (the Ohmic rule) between the photocurrent and the photovoltage is observed.