ABSTRACTWe have investigated the electrical and metallurgical behavior of Ni, Au-Ni, and Au-Ge-Ni contacts on n-InP. We have found that very low values of contact resistivity (pc) in the E-7 Ω-cm2 range are obtained with Ni-only contacts. We show that the addition of Au to Ni contact metallization effects an additional order of magnitude reduction in pc. Ultra-low contact resistivities in the E-8 Ω-cm2 range are obtained with both the Au-Ni and the Au-Ge-Ni systems, effectively eliminating the need for the presence of Ge in the Au-Ge-Ni system. The formation of various nickel phosphides at the metal-InP interface is shown to be responsible for the observed pc values in the Ni and the Au-Ni systems. We show, finally, that the order in which the constituents of Au-Ni and Au-Ge-Ni contacts are deposited has a significant bearing on the composition of the reaction products formed at the metal-InP interface and therefore on the contact resistivity at that interface.
Nickel Phosphides Fabricated through a Codeposition–Annealing Technique as Low-Cost Electrocatalytic Layers for Efficient Hydrogen Evolution Reaction
