Effect of bistrifluoromethane sulfonimide treatment on nickel/InAs contacts

Abstract

In this work, the effects of bis(trifluoromethane) sulfonimide (TFSI) (a superacid) surface treatment on electrical properties of nickel/InAs contacts and InAs material are investigated with transmission line measurements (TLMs). After TFSI treatments on bare InAs TLM patterns, the contact resistance between InAs and Ni contact increased. While for InAs TLM structure passivated with a ZrO2 thin film, the total resistance of InAs decreased drastically after TFSI treatments. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements revealed that the TFSI reduced the indium oxide at the InAs/ZrO2 interface. This novel passivation method can be adopted in III–V semiconductor device fabrication process to reduce contact resistance and, therefore, enhance device performances, providing a\xa0new guidance for III–V fabrication process technology.