Fabrication and characterization of in situ polymerized n-polyaniline films grown on p-Si heterojunctions

This work presents a study on the fabrication and the electrical transport mechanism of the in situ polymerized n-type polyaniline (PANI) grown on p-type Si to form n-polyaniline/p-Si heterojunction devices. The current–voltage–temperature (I–V–T) characteristics of n-PANI/p-Si devices were investigated in the temperature range of 298–373 K. These devices showed good rectifying behavior and the temperature dependence of the I–V characteristics were successfully explained by the thermionic mechanism in the narrow potential range, V ⩽ 0.4 V. The barrier height, ideality factor and the series resistance values of this structure were obtained from the forward bias I–V characteristics. The capacitance–voltage–temperature (C–V–T) characteristics of n-PANI/p-Si devices were also investigated. The barrier height values obtained from the C–V measurements were found to be higher than that obtained from the I–V measurements at various temperatures. From the capacitance–voltage–frequency (C–V–f) characteristics, it was found that the capacitance remained almost constant up to a certain values of the frequency in the lower and higher sides of the frequency scale. The higher values of capacitance at low frequencies were attributed to the excess capacitance resulting from the interface states in equilibrium with the p-Si side that can follow the AC signal.