Origin of rectification in boron nitride heterojunctions to silicon

Cubic and hexagonal boron nitride (cBN and hBN) heterojunctions to n-type Si are fabricated under low-energy ion bombardment by inductively coupled plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition using the chemistry of fluorine. The sp²-bonded BN/Si heterojunction shows no rectification, while the cBN/sp²BN/Si heterojunction has rectification properties analogue to typical p-n junction diodes despite a large thickness (∼130 nm) of the sp²BN interlayer. The current-voltage characteristics at temperatures up to 573 K are governed by thermal excitation of carriers, and mostly described with the ideal diode equation and the Frenkel-Poole emission model at low and high bias voltages, respectively. The rectification in the cBN/sp ²BN/Si heterojunction is caused by a bias-dependent change in the barrier height for holes arising from stronger p-type conduction in the cBN layer and enhanced with the thick sp²BN interlayer for impeding the reverse current flow at defect levels mainly associated with grain boundaries.