Rapid thermal annealing influences on microstructure and electrical properties of Mo/ZrO2/n-Si/Al MISM junction with a high-k ZrO2 insulating layer

The microstructural, chemical and electrical properties of Mo/ZrO2/n-Si/Al metal/insulator/semiconductor/metal (MISM) heterostructure with zirconium oxide (ZrO2) as an insulating layer are investigated. In comparison to the metal/semiconductor/metal (MSM) structure, the as-deposited and 600 °C annealed MISM heterostructures demonstrate outstanding rectifying performance and extremely low reverse leakage current. The as-deposited (0.98 eV) and 600 °C annealed MISM heterostructures (1.12 eV) have a higher barrier height (ɸb) than the MSM structure (0.70 eV), which indicates that the barrier height is influenced by the ZrO2 insulating layer. The results show that the ɸb values are improved for 600 °C annealed heterostructure. The forward bias C–V and G/w-V graphs exhibit anomalous peak/variations and three distinct regions called accumulation, depletion, and inversions with respect to the frequency that are attributed to the interface states and RS. The results indicate that ZrO2 film is an effective high-k oxide for the preparation of novel electronic device applications. •Optical, surface morphological, chemical, and microstructural properties of ZrO2 films were explored by UV–Vis, AFM, FESEM, EDX, XPS, and XRD.•Electrical properties of Mo/n-Si/Al MSM Junction and Mo/ZrO2/n-Si/Al MISM junctions have been studied.•Mo/ZrO2/n-Si/Al (MISM) junctions showed outstanding rectification; a higher barrier height value was attained for 600 °C annealed MISM junction compared to the as-deposited MISM junction and MSM junction.•Statistical analysis of as-deposited, 600 °C annealed MISM junction and MSM junctions have been investigated.