Physical, chemical, electronic and optical properties of CuO/NiO@n-Si thin films by drop casting method for p–n junction diode

Abstract

The development of photodetector technology is the outcome of diverse research in materials science, device engineering, and manufacturing methods. Hence, we synthesized p-CuO@n-Si, p-NiO@n-Si, p-CuO/NiO@n-Si and p-CuO/NiO-TX-100@n-Si Schottky Barrier diodes by drop-casting method and characterized by XRD, SEM, EDX, TEM, XPS and UV–visible. From the XRD analysis, the pure p-CuO@n-Si and p-NiO@n-Si, found to exhibit monoclinic and cubic crystal structure respectively whereas p-CuO/NiO@n-Si and p-CuO/NiO-TX-100@n-Si exhibits missing of two phases. The SEM images pure p-CuO@n-Si particle structure is cluster but, in contrast the pure p-NiO@n-Si exhibit spherical shape with identical particle. The Triton X-100 blend with CuO/NiO resulting the reduction of particle size in between 20 and 40 nm for p-CuO/NiO-TX-100@n-Si confirmed by TEM analysis. The photo-response characteristics of p-CuO/NiO-TX-100@n-Si Schottky barrier diode exhibit minimum ideality factor (n) (2.64), maximum barrier height (ΦB) (0.78 eV), maximum photosensitivity (Ps) ∼ 6.62 × 102%, photoresponsivity (R) ∼ 598.61 mA/W, external quantum efficiency (EQE)∼ 325.75 %, and specific detectivity (D*) ∼ 11.08 × 1012 (Jones) when compared other diodes.