Thermionic field emission in GaN nanoFET Schottky barriers

Abstract

A mathematical stability approach that enables the evaluation of the mulitvariate thermionic field emission parameters at Schottky barriers is presented. The method is general, requiring only the effective mass and relative dielectric constant for a given semiconductor. The approach is demonstrated in a first-time analysis of the barrier heights, tunneling probabilities and potential drops for changes in the Schottky barriers of gallium nitride nano-field effect transistors in a long-duration heavy ion radiation extreme environment. The investigation yielded fundamental insights into behavior that would be challenging to predict a priori .

Keywords

• thermionic field emission
• tunneling probability
• Schottky barrier
• metal semiconductor metal
• nanoFET
• gallium nitride