Barrier heights engineering of Al/p-Si Schottky contact by a thin organic interlayer

The current–voltage (I–V) characteristics of the Al/Alq3/p-Si Schottky diode shows rectified behavior with a potential barrier formed at the contact interface. The barrier height and the ideality factor values are 0.78  eV and 1.53, respectively. The barrier height of the Al/Alq3/p-Si diode is larger than that (∼0.58 eV) of the conventional Al/p-Si diode. It reveals that the organic film, Alq3, controls the carrier transport of the diode at the contact interface. A linear relationship of 1/C2vs. V plot under the reverse bias is shown and the effective barrier height is 0.69 eV by capacitance–voltage (C–V) measurement. The electrical characteristics of the diode are also discussed by using Norde’s function and Cheung’s method.

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► A new organic interlayered Schottky barrier diode Al/Alq3/Si was realized.
► It shows higher barrier height than conventional metal/Si Schottky diode.
► The series resistance of the diode was discussed.