The temperature induced current transport characteristics in the orthoferrite YbFeO3−δ thin film/p-type Si structure

The perovskite ytterbium ferrite is a new ferroelectric semiconductor material. We presented the temperature induced current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of the Al/YbFeO3−δ/p-Si/Al hetero-junction. The orthoferrite YbFeO3−δ thin films were deposited on a single crystal p-type Si substrate by a radio frequency magnetron sputtering system. The potential barrier height (BH) and ideality factor n of the heterojunction were obtained by thermionic emission current method based on the recommendations in the literature. The fact that the calculated slopes of I-V curves become temperature independent implying that the field emission current mechanism takes place across the device, which has been explained by the presence of the spatial inhomogeneity of BHs or potential fluctuations. Moreover, a tunneling transmission coefficient value of 26.67 was obtained for the ferroelectric YbFeO3−δ layer at the Al/p-Si interface.