Comparison of electrical properties of CuO/n-Si contacts with Cu/n-Si

In this study, CuO/n-Si/Al heterojunction contacts were fabricated by thermal evaporation technique. Electrical characteristics of the samples were investigated with the current-voltage (I-V), capacitance-voltage/frequency (C-V/f), and conductance-voltage (G/V) measurements at room temperature. Also, Cu/n-Si/Al Schottky contact was produced as a reference sample to investigate the electrical properties of the samples. The values of ideality factor (n), barrier height (φb) and series resistance (Rs) of the samples were calculated from the forward bias current-voltage (I-V) and reverse bias capacitance-voltage (C-V) characteristics. Also, for checking the consistency of the results, Cheung and Norde functions were used. The experimental result values of CuO/n-Si contact were compared with the values of the reference Cu/n-Si Schottky diode. It was observed that the values of the ideality factor and barrier height of the CuO/n-Si heterojunction were higher than those of the Cu/n-Si Schottky contact, while the series resistance was lower. Also, it has been observed that the value of capacitance decreased with increasing frequency and after a certain value of frequency it was almost constant. The ideality factor of CuO/n-Si/Al heterostructure is about 2.40 and so, it is not close to the ideal behavior.