Understanding Schottky Barrier Height: Why the Energy Bands?

[Fernsanz]

I have been chewing up some time ago the Schottky-Mott theory of Schottky Barrier height (which ignores the surface states). All the deduction seems to ground on fundamental thermodynamical principles (as the equality of Fermi levels- i.e. equality of chemical potential in equilibrium) but there is something which I can't clearly see and is one of the key points to calculate the height barrier: Why the energy bands on the semiconductor side just at the interface are assumed to be the same that the ones of the isolated semiconductor? It is clear that the band have to bend (because of the electric field) but I see no reason to why the bands values should "start" to bend from the original values (the values of the isolated semiconductor).

To put it in other words, the question could be restated: why the electronic affinity is assumed to be the same at the interface than at the bulk of the semiconductor?


Thanks.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

I'm sorry you are not generating any responses at the moment. Is there any additional information you can share with us? Any new findings?