Properties and Aging of Bottom-Contact CuO/Au Transmission Line Model (TLM) Structures

The bottom-contact CuO/Au transmission line model (TLM) structures have been fabricated and measured both in N<sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> and vacuum for the first time to obtain a cleaner CuO/Au interface by avoiding the exposure of the interface to the ambiance, compared to top-contact structures. Considering different strip widths, CuO/Au TLM structures measured in N<sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> show typical width-normalized contact resistances (<inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${R} _{c}\cdot {W}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) of ~2.6 k<inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\Omega \cdot $ </tex-math></inline-formula>cm, which is relatively low compared to the total resistance of CuO. The linearity of <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">I</i>–<italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">V</i> curves further indicates an ohmic contact between Au and CuO. All the CuO/Au TLM structures measured in N<sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> right after fabrication show repeatable and reliable effective contact resistivities (<inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\rho _{{c}\text {-eff}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\sim 0.55~\Omega \cdot $ </tex-math></inline-formula>cm<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> regardless of the increased <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${R} _{c}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> with decreasing CuO widths. Measured in vacuum, other thinner, more resistive CuO/Au TLM structures fabricated by the same processes exhibit lower <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${R} _{c}\cdot {W}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> of ~1.8 k<inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\Omega \cdot $ </tex-math></inline-formula>cm and record low <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\rho _{{c}\text {-eff}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\sim 0.05~\Omega \cdot $ </tex-math></inline-formula>cm<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> that might be related to the reduction of the transfer length with the increase of the CuO sheet resistance. Further investigating the CuO/Au TLM structures, the degradations of sheet and contact resistances have been observed along time for the first time when measuring the devices in vacuum at room temperature. Such aging is significantly accelerated at <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$100~^{\circ }$ </tex-math></inline-formula>C. The lack of stability of CuO/Au contacts we investigated might shine some light on the discrepancy of results widely reported in literature.