Aluminum Silicon Schottky Barriers for GEISHA Devices

The work is undertaken to investigate the use of Schottky Barrier diodes as semiconductor targets for GEISHA type devices. A secondary purpose was to evaluate Al2O3 as a passivating insulator for use with electron-beam semiconductor targets. Schottky barriers previously fabricated for semiconductor target (ST) applications have used SiO2 as an insulating/passivation layer. Since this layer may cause undesirable ST behavior under electron bombardment, the use of unpassivated structures and those using Al2O3 passivation is investigated. Details of device fabrication and evaluation are covered, barrier heights are evaluated and methods of measurement discussed, results of the measurement of current gain are given, dynamic testing is performed under electron beam energies from 5 KeV to 30 KeV, and methods used and results obtained are described. A study is made of the interaction of 10 KeV electron with the semiconductor target.