Ballistic electron emission microscopy has been utilized to investigate the hot-electron transport properties of the Ag/Si(001) Schottky diode utilizing metal films deposited both in situ and ex situ. The Schottky barrier heights are measured to be 0.57 +/- 0.02 and 0.59 +/- 0.02 eV for the ex situ and in situ depositions, respectively. The metal overlayers demonstrate typical Volmer-Weber growth when deposited on the Si(001) semiconducting substrate, as seen in the scanning tunneling microscopy images. An enhancement in hot-electron transmission is measured for the in situ deposited metal films when compared to the ex situ films. (C) 2010 American Vacuum Society. [DOI: 10.1116/1.3397795]