p-Si nanowires/SiO2/n-ZnO heterojunction photodiodes

Influence of a SiO2 ultrathin film on n-ZnO/p-silicon nanowires photodiodes has been investigated. With a SiO2 thin layer, the diode characteristics can be significantly improved, which exhibits high responsivity under a reverse bias. Based on the electron conversion efficiency measurement, we show that the ultrathin SiO2 layer with positive fixed charges not only acts as a hole blocking layer but also helps the photogenerated electrons to tunnel through the barrier. In addition, the SiO2 layer can effectively passivate the defects generated by wet etching process. It is expected that our approach can be extended to many other nanoscale heterojunction devices. (c) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3462319]