Metal-semiconductor Schottky diode with Landauer’s formalism

Abstract The Schottky barrier diode is a unipolar electronic device formed by the heterojunction of a metal and a semiconductor, widely used in various electronic and optoelectronic applications. Its rectifying current–voltage characteristic is typically derived using thermionic emission theory, which describes the transport of carriers over the Schottky barrier formed at the metal-semiconductor interface. In this paper, after briefly reviewing the metal-semiconductor heterojunction fundamentals and Landauer’s approach to electric transport, we propose an alternative way to derive the current–voltage behavior of a Schottky diode using Landauer’s formalism. This derivation can be directly applied to Schottky contacts between metals and low-dimensional materials, as demonstrated in the case of a 2D material. Additionally, we extend the proposed approach to account for tunneling currents through the barrier. Finally, we validate our findings with experimental data from a commercial Schottky diode, demonstrating excellent agreement. We also discuss non-ideal effects such as image-force lowering and lateral inhomogeneity of the Schottky barrier. This paper thus proposes an accessible and modern approach to understanding the Schottky diode current–voltage characteristics, making it suitable for both graduate- and postgraduate-level instruction.