Carrier Transport at Metal/Amorphous Hafnium–Indium–Zinc Oxide Interfaces

In this paper, the carrier transport mechanism at the metal/amorphous hafnium–indium–zinc oxide (a-HIZO) interface was investigated. The contact properties were found to be predominantly affected by the degree of interfacial reaction between the metals and a-HIZO; that is, a higher tendency to form metal oxide phases leads to excellent Ohmic contact via tunneling, which is associated with the generated donor-like oxygen vacancies. In this case, the Schottky–Mott theory is not applicable. Meanwhile, metals that do not form interfacial metal oxide, such as Pd, follow the Schottky–Mott theory, which results in rectifying Schottky behavior. The Schottky characteristics of the Pd contact to a-HIZO can be explained in terms of the barrier inhomogeneity model, which yields a mean barrier height of 1.40 eV and a standard deviation of 0.14 eV. The work function of a-HIZO could therefore be estimated as 3.7 eV, which is in good agreement with the ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (3.68 eV). Our findings will be useful for establishing a strategy to form Ohmic or Schottky contacts to a-HIZO films, which will be essential for fabricating reliable high-performance electronic devices