Thermal annealing and air exposing effect on the graphene/silicon Schottky junctions

Graphene/silicon (Gr/Si) configurations form Schottky junctions and should be a promising structure for high-performance electronics and optoelectronics. Here we presented a study on the properties of Gr/Si Schottky junctions by thermal annealing and air exposing. It was found that the ideal factor and the Schottky barrier height were lowered after vacuum annealing and increased after exposing in air for several days. The modulation of the Schottky junctions was further used to tune their optoelectronic properties. The results exhibit that the open-circuit voltage of the junctions under light illumination was varied with the ideal factor. The work here should be helpful on developing high-performance Gr/Si electronics and optoelectronics.