Electrical characterization of Au/poly (linoleic acid)-g-poly(methyl methacrylate) (PLiMMA)/n-Si diode in dark and under illumination

•Au/PLiMMA/n-Si diode and its main electrical characteristics were investigated.•Higher rectification ratio was obtained by PLiMMA layer.•Existence of PLiMMA layer enhanced the diode parameters.•PLiMMA interfacial layer is appropriate for electro-optical applications.

In this study, poly (linoleic acid)-g-poly(methyl methacrylate) (PLiMMA) graft copolymer is used as an interfacial layer in a Schottky diode for the first time. Au/poly (linoleic acid)-g-poly(methyl methacrylate) (PLiMMA)/n-Si diode was fabricated and main electrical characteristics of the diode were investigated using I–V measurements in dark and under illumination at room temperature. Ideality factor (n), barrier height (ΦB0) and serial resistance (Rs) values of the diode were found as 2.8, 0.87 eV and 8096 Ω for dark, and 6.3, 0.71 eV and 676 Ω for 100 mW/cm2 illumination intensity. Also, the reasons of deviation from ideal thermionic emission theory were investigated using Cheung&Cheung method and Card&Rhoderick's function which are used for calculating voltage dependence of barrier height (ΦB(V)), series resistance (Rs) and number of surface states (Nss) of the Au/PLiMMA/n-Si diode.