We have achieved the highest barrier height (0.90 eV) with a Schottky contact scheme of W-B-N/GaAs after rapid thermal annealing (RTA) at 700 °C, and even after the RTA at 900 °C, its barrier height (0.77 eV) is relatively higher than those of W (0.55 eV) and W-N/GaAs Schottky contacts (0.68 eV). Deep level transient spectroscopy and carrier density profile measurements show that the higher barrier height and lower leakage current of the W-B-N/GaAs diode are due to the W-B-N film that suppresses changes of the surface carrier and EL2 trap concentrations after the RTA. ©1998 American Institute of Physics.