Transport characteristics of n-ZnO/p-Si heterojunction as determined from temperature dependent current-voltage measurements

Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods have been synthesized by a two-step chemical bath deposition process on silicon substrates having different dopant densities and orientations. Scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis reveal that the orientation of the Si substrate does not affect the orientation, distribution or crystallinity of the nanostructures. The electrical properties of the ZnO/Si heterojunction are also investigated by current-voltage (I-V) measurements. The ideality factor is found to be 2.6 at 295 K, indicating that complex current transport mechanisms are at play. Temperature dependent I-V characteristics have been used to determine the dominant transport mechanism. The experimental results suggest that in the low bias region the current is dominated by a trap assisted multi-step tunneling process.