Optical determination of metal-semiconductor Schottky barriers

Abstract

The photovoltage produced by a Schottky barrier photocell shows a strong temperature dependence if the barrier is not too large. We have used this temperature dependence to obtain the barrier height for several III-V semiconductor~Au, Ag combinations. The results suggest that a simple Fermi level difference model is most appropriate for many of these small barrier IlI-V photocells, This appears to be the case, even if the Fermi level difference leads to a barrier greater than the energy gap of the semiconductor.