I-V characteristics of metal/Hg_1-xMn_xTe contact

Au/Hg_1-xMn_xTe and Al/Hg_1-xMn_xTe contacts were fabricated using sputter deposition (for Au) and thermal evaporation (for Al) methods respectively. I-V electronic characteristics of two contacts before and after passivation treatment were measured by Aligent4155c I-V tester. The experimental results were discussed based on thermionic emission-diffusion theory. The results show that Au/Hg_1-xMn_x Te contact are the ohmic contact, while Al/Hg_1-xMn_xTe are Schottky contact with the barrier height of 0.38eV. The surface leakage current decreases markedly after the passivation treatment. The highest current dropping rate was 76.1% at the forward bias voltage of 0.1V for Au/Hg_1-xMn_xTe, and was 93.2% at 0.2V for Al/Hg_1-xMn_xTe. The current dropping rate reduces with further increasing the bias voltage for both contacts.