Metal-Semiconductor Contact

The metal-semiconductor interface is among the most challenging problems in the field of solid-state theory and device physics. A variety of physical phenomena, e.g. the influence of interface states on barrier height [4.20, 4.34], the effect of interfacial layers (dipole, oxide, or contamination) [4.2, 4.6, 4.15, 4.18], inelastic scattering events [4.16, 4.22], recombination, trapping [4.5, 4.10] and trap-assisted tunneling [4.9], vertical and lateral potential fluctuations [4.8], barrier height fluctuations [4.33], interface roughness [4.30], band-state mixing [4.12], realistic image forces, hot carrier effects, and some other issues make the theoretical modeling a complicated task. Simplified contact models, e.g. suitable for device simulation, have to neglect most of all these effects.