Specific features of the recombination loss of the photocurrent in n-TiN/p-Si anisotype heterojunctions

Photosensitive n-TiN/p-Si heterostructures are fabricated by reactive magnetron sputtering. The heterostructures generate an open-circuit voltage of V _oc = 0.4 V and a short-circuit current of I _sc = 1.36 mA/cm² under illumination at 80 mW/cm². An analysis of the light current-voltage characteristic and quantum-yield spectrum demonstrate that the poor photoelectric parameters are due to recombination in the base region of the heterojunction and to the formation of a high-resistivity SiO₂ layer on the surface of polycrystalline silicon, which fails to provide high-quality passivation of surface states.     

Isotype surface-barrier n-TiN/n-Si heterostructure

n-TiN/n-Si heterostructures are prepared by reactive magnetron sputtering. The current-voltage characteristics of the heterostructures are measured at different temperatures. The temperature dependences of the potential-barrier height and the series resistance of the heterojunction are analyzed. The energy-band diagram for the heterojunctions under study is constructed. The concentration of heterojunction surface states is estimated to be 2.67 × 10¹³ cm^?2. It is established that the dominant mechanisms of current transport through forward- and reverse-biased n-TiN/n-Si heterojunctions are described well within the tunnel and emission models.     

Silicon nanowire array architecture for heterojunction electronics

Photosensitive nanostructured heterojunctions n-TiN/p-Si were fabricated by means of titanium nitride thin films deposition (n-type conductivity) by the DC reactive magnetron sputtering onto nano structured single crystal substrates of p-type Si (100). The temperature dependencies of the height of the potential barrier and series resistance of the n-TiN/p-Si heterojunctions were investigated. The dominant current transport mechanisms through the heterojunctions under investigation were determined at forward and reverse bias. The heterojunctions under investigation generate open-circuit voltage V _oc = 0.8 V, short-circuit current I _sc = 3.72 mA/cm² and fill factor FF = 0.5 under illumination of 100 mW/cm².

     

Electrical and photoelectric properties of <Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis>-TiN/<Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-Hg<Subscript>3</Subscript>In<Subscript>2</Subscript>Te<Subscript>6</Subscript> heterostructures

n-TiN/p-Hg₃In₂Te₆ heterostructures are fabricated by depositing a thin n-type titanium nitride (TiN) film onto prepared p-type Hg₃In₂Te₆ plates using reactive magnetron sputtering. Their electrical and photoelectric properties are studied. Dominant charge-transport mechanisms under forward bias are analyzed within tunneling-recombination and tunneling models. The fabricated n-TiN/p-Hg₃In₂Te₆ structures have the following photoelectric parameters at an illumination intensity of 80 mW/cm²: the open-circuit voltage is V_OC = 0.52 V, the short-circuit current is I_SC = 0.265 mA/cm², and the fill factor is FF = 0.39.     

Temperature dependences of the electrical parameters of anisotype NiO/CdTe heterojunctions

The I–V characteristics of NiO/CdTe heterostructures fabricated by reactive magnetron sputtering are measured at different temperatures. It is established that current transport through the NiO/CdTe heterojunction is mainly controlled via generation–recombination and tunneling under forward bias and via tunneling under reverse bias. The investigated heterostructures generate an open-circuit voltage of V _oc = 0.26 V and a short-circuit current density of I _sc = 58.7 μA/cm² at an illumination intensity of 80 mW/cm².     

Electrical Properties of <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-NiO/<Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis>-Si Heterostructures Based on Nanostructured Silicon

Silicon nanowires are formed on n-Si substrates by chemical etching. p-NiO/n-Si heterostructures are fabricated by reactive magnetron sputtering. The energy diagram of anisotype p-NiO/n-Si heterostructures is constructed according to the Anderson model. The current–voltage and capacitance–voltage characteristics are measured and analyzed. The main current-transport mechanisms through the p-NiO/n-Si heterojunction under forward and reverse biases are established.     

Nonmonotonic variations in the concentration of the donor-and acceptor-type radiation defects in silicon irradiated with low-intensity fluxes of β particles

Deep-level transient spectroscopy is used to study the dependence of the concentration of the donor-and acceptor-type radiation defects in silicon on the duration of irradiation with low-intensity fluxes of β particles (I ≈ 9 × 10⁵ cm^?2 s^?1). It is found that the concentrations of the defects C _i , C _i -C _s , and/or V-O in n-Si and the defects V-B, C _i -O _i , and/or V ₂-O-C in p-Si vary nonmonotonically.     

Pentacene/n-Si heterojunction diodes and photovoltaic devices investigated by I-V and C-V measurements

The forward and reverse current density-voltage (J-V) and capacitance-voltage (C-V) characteristics of pentacene/n⁻-silicon heterojunction diodes were investigated to clarify the carrier conduction mechanism at the organic/inorganic heterojunction. Current rectification characteristics of the pentacene/n⁻-Si junctions can be explained by a Schottky diode model with an interfacial layer. The diode parameters such as Schottky barrier height and ideality factor were estimated to be 0.79-1.0 eV and 2.4-2.7, respectively. The C-V analysis suggests that the depletion layer appears selectively in the n⁻-Si layer with a thickness of 1.47 μm from the junction with zero bias and the diffusion potential was estimated at 0.30 eV at the open-circuit condition. The present heterojunction allows the photovoltaic operation with power conversion efficiencies up to 0.044% with a simulated solar light exposure of 100 mW/cm².     

Electrical properties of anisotype n-CdO/p-Si heterojunctions

An n-CdO/p-Si heterojunction is fabricated by the deposition of a thin cadmium-oxide film with n-type conductivity onto a polished polycrystalline p-Si wafer by the spray-pyrolysis technique. The I-V characteristics of the heterostructure are measured at different temperatures. It is established that the current through the investigated heterostructure at the forward bias 3kT/e < V < 0.5 V is formed by tunneling-recombination processes with the participation of surface states at the CdO/Si interface and at V > 0.5 V, by tunneling through the space-charge region. The dominant mechanisms of current transport at reverse bias are the Frenkel-Pull emission and tunneling with the participation of energy levels formed by surface states.     

Electrical analysis of Al/ZnO/p-Si,Al/PMMA/p-Si and Al/PMMA/ZnO/p-Si structures: Comparison study

Al/ZnO/p-Si, Al/PMMA/p-Si and Al/PMMA/ZnO/p-Si structures were fabricated. Based on the measured current–voltage (C–V) and capacitance–voltage curves, the electrical characteristics of these heterostructures such as ideality factor, barrier height and series resistance of each structure were analyzed and then compared with those of Al/PMMA/ZnO/p-Si. According to C–V measurement, it was found that the Al/PMMA/ZnO/p-Si structure indicates the better electronic performance rather than other structures. The obtained results represent low series resistance (19.3 Ω) after coating with polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) over ZnO/p-Si heterojunction structure for Al/PMMA/ZnO/p-Si heterostructure.     

Electrical behavior of Np AlGaAs/GaAs heterojunctions with high acceptor concentrations

The electrical behavior of molecular-beam-epitaxy grown Np⁺ AlGaAs/GaAs heterojunction diodes with acceptor concentration as high as 4 × 10¹⁹/cm³ and abrupt conduction band spike was studied. The behavior of the heterojunction diodes has been compared to that obtained for the similar Np AlGaAs/GaAs structure diode with acceptor concentration of 2 × 10¹⁸/cm³. The latter was reported by the other authors recently. The studies were made by both experimental measurements and simulation based on simple assumptions. Experimentally obtained I-V characteristics at large forward-bias voltages gave the ideality factor n = 1.25–1.30 with fairly good agreement with previously reported data. Meanwhile, it was found that a shift of the bias voltage by about −0.2 V was necessary in order to get a coincidence of I-V characteristics at high forward-bias voltages with those given in the reported paper. This shift was ascribed to the difference of the acceptor concentration N_A of p-GaAs region for both specimens. Namely, one is 4 × 10¹⁹/cm³ and the other one is 2 × 10¹⁸/cm³. This was reasonably confirmed by the energy band diagrams for both specimens deduced by means of the simulation. The I-V characteristics obtained by the simulation for the diodes with the various N_A values also supported the observed bias voltage shift. It was suggested that the optimum value of N_A should be chosen to obtain the high performance HBTs with Np⁺ AlGaAs/GaAs heterojunction emitter.     

Structural and Electrical Properties of Ag/<Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis>-TiO<Subscript>2</Subscript>/<Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-Si/Al Heterostructure Fabricated by Pulsed Laser Deposition Technique

We have investigated the structural and electrical characteristics of the Ag/n-TiO₂/p-Si/Al heterostructure. Thin films of pure TiO₂ were deposited on p-type silicon (100) by optimized pulsed laser ablation with a KrF-excimer laser in an oxygen-controlled environment. X-ray diffraction analysis showed the formation of crystalline TiO₂ film having a tetragonal texture with a strong (210) plane as the preferred direction. High purity aluminium and silver metals were deposited to obtain ohmic contacts on p-Si and n-TiO₂, respectively. The current–voltage (I–V) characteristics of the fabricated heterostructure were studied by using thermionic emission diffusion mechanism over the temperature range of 80–300 K. Parameters such as barrier height and ideality factor were derived from the measured I–V data of the heterostructure. The detailed analysis of I–V measurements revealed good rectifying behavior in the inhomogeneous Ag/n-TiO₂/p-Si(100)/Al heterostructure. The variations of barrier height and ideality factor with temperature and the non-linearity of the activation energy plot confirmed that barrier heights at the interface follow Gaussian distributions. The value of Richardson’s constant was found to be 6.73 × 10⁵ Am^?2 K^?2, which is of the order of the theoretical value 3.2 × 10⁵ Am^?2 K^?2. The capacitance–voltage (C–V) measurements of the heterostructure were investigated as a function of temperature. The frequency dependence (Mott–Schottky plot) of the C–V characteristics was also studied. These measurements indicate the occurrence of a built-in barrier and impurity concentration in TiO₂ film. The optical studies were also performed using a UV–Vis spectrophotometer. The optical band gap energy of TiO₂ films was found to be 3.60 eV.     

Electric and photoelectric properties of n-GaxIn1−x N/p-Si anisotypic heterojunctions

We have developed a technology for producing n-type Ga_xIn_1−x N/p-Si heterostructures by combined pyrolysis of indium and gallium monoammoniate chlorides, making it possible to obtain heterolayers with composition varying over wide limits (from GaN up to InN). The composition and basic electric and optical characteristics of nitride films were determined. The electric and photoelectric properties of the heterostructures with Ga_xIn_1−x N films of different composition were investigated. It was shown that the anisotypic heterojunction n-Ga_xIn_1−x N/p-Si is a promising photosensitive element for detecting visible-range radiation. The maximum values of the specific detectivity were D*=1.2×10¹¹ Hz^1/2·W⁻¹ at 290 K. A band diagram of the heterojunction was constructed. Fiz. Tekh. Poluprovodn. 32, 461–465 (April 1998)     

Fabrication and Electrical Characterization of Heterojunction Mn-Doped GaN Nanowire Diodes on <Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis>-Si Substrates (GaN:Mn NW/<Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis>-Si)

We demonstrated that manganese (Mn)-doped GaN nanowires (NWs) exhibit p-type characteristics using current–voltage (I–V) characteristics in both heterojunction p–n structures (GaN:Mn NWs/n-Si substrate) and p–p structures (GaN:Mn NWs/p-Si). The heterojunction p–n diodes were formed by the coupling of the Mn-doped GaN NWs with an n-Si substrate by means of an alternating current (AC) dielectrophoresis-assisted assembly deposition technique. The GaN:Mn NWs/n-Si diode showed a clear current-rectifying behavior with a forward voltage drop of 2.4 V to 2.8 V, an ideality factor of 30 to 37, and a parasitic resistance in the range of 93 kΩ to 130 kΩ. On the other hand, we observed that other heterojunction structures (GaN:Mn NWs/p-Si) showed no rectifying behaviors as seen in p–p junction structures.     

Contact potential of p-Al0.5Ga0.5As/n-GaAs structures

The built-in potential of Al_0.5Ga_0.5As (10¹⁸ cm^?3) gates on n-type (10¹⁷ cm^?3) GaAs channel layers in the case of heterojunction normally-off FETs has been measured via C-V and forward I-V methods. A built-in potential of 1.39 eV from C-V measurements and 1.36 eV from forward I-V characteristics which compare well with the theory (1.4 eV) have been deduced. The ideality coefficient is found to be 1.56.     

Properties of amorphous CdS-crystalline Si junctions

Junctions between amorphous a-CdS and crystalline n-Si have been prepared. It is found that the junctions are rectifying with a coefficient k_r = 10²−10³ at room temperature. The temperature dependence of k_r, the J-V characteristics and the spectral intensity dependence of the photocurrent have been measured. The results are interpreted on the basis of carrier injection from c-Si to a-CdS and the assumption that C₁⁻ states in a-CdS define the reverse current flow. An energy band diagram of the heterojunction is proposed.     

Water-soluble poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)/nano-crystalline TiO2 heterojunction solar cells

Nanocrystalline titanium dioxide (TiO₂) thin films were prepared by the sol-gel method and were then used to fabricate an indium-tin oxide (ITO)/nano-crystalline TiO₂/poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT)/Au device. The junction thus obtained shows a rectifying behavior. Their current-voltage (I-V) characteristics in dark indicate that a heterojunction at the nano-crystalline TiO₂/PEDOT interface has been created. The measured open-circuit voltage (V_oc) and short-circuit current (I_sc) for the device under illumination with 50 mW/cm² light intensity under AM 1.5 conditions (device dimension was 1 cm²) are V_oc=0.39 V, I_sc=54.9 μA/cm², the filling factor (FF)=0.429 and the energy conversion efficiency (η)=0.03%.     

Charge transfer in rectifying oxide heterostructures and oxide access elements in ReRAM

The main aspects of the synthesis and experimental research of oxide diode heterostructures are discussed with respect to their use as selector diodes, i.e., access elements in oxide resistive memory. It is shown that charge transfer in these materials differs significantly from the conduction mechanism in p–n junctions based on conventional semiconductors (Si, Ge, A^III–B^V), and the model should take into account the electronic properties of oxides, primarily the low carrier drift mobility. It is found that an increase in the forward current requires an oxide with a small band gap (<1.3 eV) in the heterostructure composition. Heterostructures with Zn, In–Zn (IZO), Ti, Ni, and Cu oxides are studied; it is found that the CuO–IZO heterojunction has the highest forward current density (10⁴ A/cm²).     

Effect of series resistance on the electrical characteristics and interface state energy distributions of Sn/p-Si (MS) Schottky diodes

In this study, electrical characteristics of the Sn/p-type Si (MS) Schottky diodes have been investigated by current-voltage (I-V) and capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurements at room temperature. The barrier height obtained from C-V measurement is higher than obtained from I-V measurement and this discrepancy can be explained by introducing a spatial distribution of barrier heights due to barrier height inhomogeneities, which are available at the nanostructure Sn/p-Si interface. A modified Norde’s function combined with conventional forward I-V method was used to extract the parameters including barrier height (Φ_b) and the series resistance (R_S). The barrier height and series resistance obtained from Norde’s function was compared with those from Cheung functions. In addition, the interface-state density (N_SS) as a function of energy distribution (E_SS-E_V) was extracted from the forward-bias I-V measurements by taking into account the bias dependence of the effective barrier height (Φ_b) and series resistance (R_S) for the Schottky diodes. While the interface-state density (N_SS) calculated without taking into account series resistance (R_S) has increased exponentially with bias from 4.235 × 10¹² cm⁻²eV⁻¹ in (E_SS - 0.62) eV to 2.371 × 10¹³ cm⁻²eV⁻¹ in (E_SS - 0.39) eV of p-Si, the N_SS obtained taking into account the series resistance has increased exponentially with bias from of 4.235 × 10¹² to 1.671 × 10¹³ cm⁻²eV⁻¹ in the same interval. This behaviour is attributed to the passivation of the p-doped Si surface with the presence of thin interfacial insulator layer between the metal and semiconductor.     

Electrical properties of Si:H/<Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-Si structures fabricated by hydrogen implantation

Hydrogenated silicon (Si:H) layers and Si:H/p-Si heterostructures were produced by multiple-energy (3–24 keV) high-dose (5×10¹⁶–3×10¹⁷ cm^?2) hydrogen implantation into p-Si wafers. After implantation, current transport across the structures is controlled by the Poole-Frenkel mechanism, with the energy of the dominating emission center equal to E _c ?0.89 eV. The maximum photosensitivity is observed for structures implanted with 3.2×10¹⁷ cm^?2 of hydrogen and annealed in the temperature range of 250–300°C. The band gap of the Si:H layer E _g ≈2.4 eV, and the dielectric constant ?≈3.2. The density of states near the Fermi level is (1–2)×10¹⁷ cm^?3 eV^?1.