Effects of sulfide treatment on electronic transport of graphene/n-type Si Schottky diodes

The present work reports the fabrication and detailed electrical properties of graphene/n-type Si Schottky diodes with and without sulfide treatment. The graphene/n-type Si Schottky diode without sulfide treatment shows a poor rectifying behavior with an ideality factor (η) of 4.2 and high leakage. η > 2 implies that the interfacial defects influence the electronic conduction through the device. However, the graphene/n-type Si Schottky diode with sulfide treatment for 5 min shows a good rectifying behavior with η of 1.8 and low leakage. Such an improvement indicates that a good passivation is formed at the interface as a result of the reduction of the defect density. These experimental demonstrations suggest that it may be possible to minimize the adverse effects of the interface states to obtain functional devices using sulfide treatment. In addition, the graphene/n-type Si Schottky diode with sulfide treatment for 10 min shows a poor rectifying behavior with η of 2.5 and high leakage. Note, a suitable sulfide treatment time is an important issue for improving the device performance.