Clustering of gold on 6H-SiC and local nanoscale electrical properties

In this work, a methodology, based on a self-organization process, to form goldnanoclusters on the 6H-SiC surface, is illustrated. By scanning electron microscopy and atomicforce microscopy the gold self-organization induced by annealing processes was studied andmodelled by classical limited surface diffusion ripening theories. These studies allowed us tofabricate Au nanoclusres/SiC nanostructured materials with tunable structural properties.The local electrical properties of such a nanostructured material were probed, by conductive atomicforce microscopy collecting high statistics of I-V curves. The main observed result was theSchottky barrier height (SBH) dependence on the cluster size. This behaviour is interpretedconsidering the physics of few electron quantum dots merged with the ballistic transport. A quitesatisfying agreement between the theoretical forecast behaviour and the experimental data has beenfound.