A comparative study of the Au/n-Si (MS) and Au/(ZnO:CeO2:PVP)/n-Si (MPS) Schottky structures by using current/voltage characteristics in dark and under illumination

Abstract

Abstract In the present study, both MS and MPS SDs were grown onto same n-Si wafer to compare their electrical and optical characteristics. Firstly, ZnO and CeO2 nanostructures were synthesized by ultrasonic-assisted method (UAM), and structurally characterized by utilizing XRD, Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis), and Fourier-Transform-IR (FTIR) methods. The mean submicron crystallite sizes were estimated to be below 11.39nm for CeO2 and 54.37nm for ZnO nanostructures through the Debye-Scherrer method. The optical-bandgap was calculated as 3.84eV for CeO2 and 3.88eV for ZnO nanostructures via Tauc plot. Electrical parameters such as reverse-saturation current (Io), ideality-factor (n), zero-bias BH (ΦBo), and rectification-ratio RR were found as 0.596μA, 5.45, 0.64eV, 2.74x105 in dark and 5.54μA, 5.88, 0.59eV, 8.60x103 under illumination for the MS SD and 0.027μA, 4.36, 0.72eV, 1.85x107 in dark and 0.714μA, 5.18, 0.64eV, 7.61x104 under illumination for the MPS SD, respectively. The energy-dependent profile of surface-states was obtained via the Card-Rhoderick method, by considering ΦB(V) and n. RR of the MPS SD is almost sixty-seven times the RR of the MS SD in dark. Sensitivity of the MPS SD (=710) is nineteen and five tenths the sensitivity of the MS SD (=36.4), so the MPS SD is considerably more sensitive to illumination. These results indicate that the (ZnO:CeO2:PVP) organic-interlayer significantly improves the performance of the MS SD.