Transport across a high—low barrier and its influence on specific contact resistivity of a metal—n-GaAs ohmic system

Thermionic emission is hypothesized as a mechanism of carrier transport across the high-low barrier of a metal-semiconductor (M-S) ohmic junction. The barrier resistance, based on this theory is calculated and combined with tunneling resistance of the M-S junction to evaluate specific contact resistivity of ohmic contact to n-GaAs. The theoretical results interpret the published experimental data convincingly and thus validate the proposed mechanism of thermionic emission.