The effect of rapid thermal annealing on the electrical and structural properties of Ni/Au Schottky contacts on n-InP have been investigated by current-voltage (I-V), capacitance-voltage (C-V), auger electron spectroscopy (AES) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques. The Au/Ni/n-InP Schottky contacts are rapid thermally annealed in the temperature range of 200-500 degrees C for a duration of 1 min. The Schottky barrier height of as-deposited Ni/Au Schottky contact has been found to be 0.50 eV (I-V) and 0.86 eV (C-V), respectively. It has been found that the Schottky barrier height decreased with increasing annealing temperature as compared to as-deposited sample. The barrier height values obtained are 0.43 eV (I-V), 0.72 eV (C-V) for the samples annealed at 200 degrees C, 0.45 eV (I-V) and 0.73 eV (C-V) for those at 400 degrees C. Further increase in annealing temperature to 500 degrees C the barrier height slightly increased to 0.46 eV (I-V) and 0.78 eV (C-V) compared to the values obtained for the samples annealed at 200 degrees C and 400 degrees C. AES and XRD studies showed the formation of indium phases at the Ni/Au and InP interface and may be the reason for the increase in barrier height. The AFM results showed that there is no significant degradation in the surface morphology (rms roughness of 1.56 nm) of the contact even after annealing at 500 degrees C. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.