An ideal metal-semiconductor Schottky barrier contact was made by chemically depositing thin films of molybdenum on n-type silicon by the hydrogen reduction of molybdenum pentachloride at temperatures between 390°C and 500°C. Current-voltage, capacity-voltage, and photoelectric measurements were used to investigate the characteristics of molybdenum-silicon diodes thus produced. The junction is shown to be very close to the ideal Schottky barrier with the barrier height measured with respect to the Fermi energy of 0.57±0.02 eV.