The electrical properties of a thin (350 Å) layer deposited on a molecular beam epitaxial grownSi0.89Ge0.11/Si(001)heterostructure and subsequently annealed atTa=550–800 °Cwere studied in a wide (80–325 K) temperature range. Annealing at 800 °C produces a single reaction product, the C54 phase ofTi(SiGe)2,while lower temperature anneals result in the coexistence of a few intermetallic compounds. It was found that while for annealing temperatures lower than 800 °C, the Fermi level is pinned with respect to the conduction band, annealing at 800 °C results in Fermi level partial pinning with respect to the valence band. The current flow in this case is controlled mainly by thermionic emission in the presence of interface states. Two kinds of traps were observed by deep level transient spectroscopy in the barrier region after the 800 °C annealing. Acceptor-like traps with an activation energy of ≈0.46–0.5 eV, a capture cross-section&sgr;a=1.3×10−12 cm2,and a densityDt≈3×1013 eV−1cm−2,which most likely originate from the strain relaxation in the SiGe epilayer, were found to be responsible for the partial Fermi level pinning at the interface. Electron traps with an activation energy of ≈0.17 eV and a capture cross-section&sgr;d=7.7×10−16 cm2were also identified and attributed to the SiGe epilayer; they are assumed to originate from a well-known vacancy-oxygen center. ©1997 American Institute of Physics.