Incorporation of Chromium Nanostructures into PVC Interlayer to Improve Electrical Features of Au/n-Si Schottky Diodes

Abstract

Abstract This work comprehensively examined the effects of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) polymer and polyvinyl chloride-chromium (PVC:Cr) thin layers on the electronic characteristics of Au/n-Si (D0) sample. To achieve this, the configurations Au/PVC/n-Si (D1) and Au/PVC:Cr/n-Si (D2) were created. A detailed description of the PVC:Cr nanocomposite synthesis process was given. The Cr nanoparticles and PVC:Cr nanocomposite were analyzed using energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) to determine the purity and surface morphology. Following the structural analysis, current-voltage (I-V) measurements were taken at a wide voltage range (±3 V), and several methodologies were applied to obtain and compare the major electronic variables of the created Schottky diodes. Experimental results show that PVC:Cr nanocomposite reduced ideality factor (n), surface states density (Nss), and series resistance (Rs) while increasing barrier height (BH) of the electric potential, shunt resistance (Rsh), and rectification rate (RR). It was found that the D2 sample's RR was 89 times greater than the D0 sample's. Furthermore, the surface state density (Nss) depending on the energy was determined using the n(V) and ΦB0(V) functions. Based on the ln(IR)-VR0.5 profile in the reverse bias region, a Schottky emission (SE) transport mechanism was found to be effective for the D0 structure. On the other hand, the indicates that D1 and D2 structures exhibited the Poole-Frenkel emission (PFE) type.