Transition from Schottky to Ohmic contacts in 2D Ge/GaAs heterostructures with high tunneling probability

Abstract

The metal–semiconductor (M–S) contact is usually an Ohmic contact or a Schottky contact, which greatly affects the electronic properties of devices, and it remains a huge challenge to realize a low-resistance Ohmic contact in a metal–semiconductor junction (MSJ). Herein, we systematically studied the band structures, electrostatic potential, charge transfer, Schottky barrier height of carriers, effective carrier masses, and tunneling probability of carriers of a germanene (Ge)/GaAs MSJ. The transition from the Schottky to the Ohmic contact can be caused by applying certain biaxial strains or electric fields, which weakens the Fermi level pinning (FLP) effect and reduces contact resistance. Meanwhile, the electron injection efficiency of Ge/(GaAs)_As MSJ (P_TB > 27%) is far superior to that of other two-dimensional (2D) vdW MSJs. This work indicates that Ge/GaAs heterostructures are the most compatible for applying high-effective 2D electronic nanodevices under controllable conditions.