Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 13, 2026

Fabrication of Schottky Diodes on Zn-polar BeMgZnO/ZnO Heterostructure Grown by Plasma-assisted Molecular Beam Epitaxy
Published on: October 23, 2018
Current transport mechanism in a metal-GaN nanowire Schottky diode
Seung-Yong Lee1, Sang-Kwon Lee
1Department of Semiconductor Science and Technology, SPRC, Chonbuk National University, Jeonju 561-756, Korea.
Abstract:
We investigated nano-Schottky diodes of gallium nitride nanowires with three Schottky metals (Cr, Ti, and Au) using current-voltage characteristics. All of the GaN nano-Schottky diodes showed a rectifying behavior. The abnormal electrical characteristics of a single GaN nanowire Schottky diode can be explained by a thermionic-field emission and an enhancement of the tunneling effects owing to both the relatively high concentration of the GaN nanowire itself and the nanoscale junction size of the GaN nanowire Schottky diodes.
Related Concept Videos
Schottky Barrier Diode
Metal-Semiconductor Junctions
Schottky Barriers
Schottky barriers arise when a metal with a work function (Φm) contacts a semiconductor with a different work function (Φs). Initially, electrons transfer until the Fermi levels of the metal and semiconductor align at equilibrium. For instance, if Φm > Φs, the semiconductor Fermi level is higher than the metal's before contact. The semiconductor's...
Biasing of Metal-Semiconductor Junctions
In Schottky junctions, where the semiconductor is n-type, applying a positive voltage to the metal relative to the semiconductor reduces its Fermi...
Semiconductors
Metals such as copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), or lead (Pb) have low resistivity and feature conduction bands that are either not fully occupied or overlap with the valence band, making a bandgap non-existent. This allows electrons in the highest energy levels of the valence band to easily transition to the conduction band upon gaining...
Carrier Transport
Drift Current:
The drift of charge carriers is started by an external electric field (E). Charged particles, such as electrons and holes, experience an acceleration between collisions with lattice atoms. For electrons, this results in a drift velocity (vd) given by:
P-N junction

