The role of surface states in modification of carrier transport in silicon nanowires

Abstract

We investigate transport properties of polyacrylic acid (PAA) capped n and p-type silicon nanowire (SiNW) arrays. PAA diluted with deionized water at different concentrations was spun directly on vertically grown SiNW arrays prepared by metal assisted electroless chemical etching. PAA provides mechanical support to electrical contacts and acts as a source of interface doping by creating acceptor like states (holes) on SiNWs surface. PAA capping results in increase in current in p-type SiNWs and decrease in current in n-type SiNWs. Schottky emission model fits current voltage (IV) characteristics of p-type SiNWs/PAA device. Ohmic like conduction at lower voltages followed by space charge limited current (SCLC) with and without traps is observed in p-type SiNWs, n-type SiNWs, and n-type SiNWs/PAA devices. Using SCLC model with exponential distribution of traps, the extracted trap density was 7.20 × 1011/cm3 and 6.0 × 1011/cm3 for p-type SiNWs and n-type SiNWs devices, respectively. Our findings also demonstrate that the carrier concentration in SiNWs depends not only on doping concentration but also depends significantly on density of surface states.