Schottky barrier diodes of Au and Cr were sputter-deposited onto epitaxially grown layers of n-type material. The diode properties were then determined by using current-voltage and capacitance-voltage techniques, while deep-level transient spectroscopy was used to study the sputter-induced defects. The results showed that the sputter deposition process produced surface and sub-surface disorder which introduced electrically active defect levels into the band-gap. It was concluded that this was the first time that the introduction of a metastable defect into epitaxial n-type GaAs during sputter-deposition had been reported.

S.A.Goodman, F.D.Auret, Y.Leclerc: Materials Science Forum, 1995, 196-201 1955-60