Preparation and electrical characterization of Au/n-Si (110) structure with PVA-nickel acetate composite film interfacial layer

Two types of Schottky diodes, with and without PVA (Ni-doped) layer, were fabricated to investigate whether or not the PVA (Ni-doped) layer is effective on some electrical parameters such as ideality factor n, barrier height Phi(B0), series resistance R-s, and interface state density N-SS. PVA (Ni-doped) microdrops film was deposited on n-type silicon substrate. SDs with and without PVA (Ni-doped) layer, namely MPS and MS diodes, respectively, were investigated by current-voltage (I-V) measurements at room temperature. Also, series resistance calculations have been performed using Cheung method. The values of n and R-s obtained for MPS are found higher compared to those of MS. This is attributed to the particular distribution of N-SS, and inhomogeneity of barrier height and interfacial layer at metal/semiconductor (M/S) interface. Au/PVA(Ni-doped)/n-Si diode (MPS) exhibits a photovoltaic behavior with an open circuit voltage V-oc 0.42 V and short-circuit current I-SC 33.2 mu A under 100 mW/cm(2) illumination intensity. The obtained photovoltaic results indicate that the MPS diode can be used as an efficient material for applications in optoelectronic applications such as solar cells and photodiode devices.