Mr. Maor Manevich - M.Sc. Candidate
30/08/2026
אודיטוריום ע"ש דויד וואנג, בניין מידן, קומה 3
13:30
Gallium Nitride (GaN) is a wide bandgap semiconductor that also possesses strong piezoelectric properties, which opens the door to electromechanical applications including the unique phenomenon called “Piezotronic Effect”, essentially controlling the potential barrier at a GaN based diode applying stress. A good candidate for studying this effect in micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) is a Nickel/GaN Schottky diode, where Nickel is acting as a ferromagnetic, magnetostrictive metal which strains under an application of magnetic field.
The goal of this research was to investigate a Schottky junction based on Ni/n-GaN and study magnetic/semiconductor coupling effects, especially the magneto-piezotronic effect, that is based on contact magnetostriction and GaN piezoelectricity.
I-V measurements had been conducted without and under uniform static magnetic field in two axes, in-plane and out-of-plane. The results showed that applying magnetic field on the Ni/GaN Schottky junction can increase or decrease the current by a few orders of magnitude, depending on the magnetic field axis, while control experiments conducted on non-magnetic Ti/Al/Ti/Au contacts did not show any significant magneto-piezotronic effect. An XRD crystallographic analysis of the contact layers was performed with and without magnetic field and is discussed in the context of the electrical measurements. We propose that the magnetic field manipulates the magnetic domains in the Nickel thin film, causing strain by the magnetoelastic effects, and as a result, it manipulates the contact’s Schottky barrier height (SBH).
These results open a new path for studying the magneto-piezotronic effect in Schottky junctions and investigating the change in their properties.