Structural, electrical and magnetic characterizations of Ni/Cu/p-Si Schottky diodes prepared by liquid phase epitaxy

In this paper, we have investigated the structural, electrical and magnetic characterizations of Ni/Cu/p-Si Schottky diode prepared by liquid phase epitaxy (LPE). Current density–voltage (J–V), capacitance–voltage (C–V) and capacitance–frequency (C–f) measurements were performed to determine the conduction mechanisms as well as extracting the important diode parameters. Rectifying properties were obtained, which definitely of the Schottky diode type. At low voltages, (0 < V ⩽ 0.4 V), current density in the forward direction was found to obey the diode equation, while for higher voltages, (0.5 < V ⩽ 1.5 V), conduction was dominated by a space-charge-limited conduction (SCLC) mechanism. Analysis of the experimental data under reverse bias suggests a transition from electrode-limited to a bulk-limited conduction process for lower and higher applied voltages, respectively. Diode parameters such as, the built-in potential, Vb, the carrier concentration, N, the width of the depletion layer, W, of the Ni/Cu/p-Si Schottky diode were obtained from the C–V measurements at high frequency (1 MHz). The capacitance–frequency measurements showed that the values of capacitance were highly frequency dependent at low frequency region but independent at high frequencies. The Ni/Cu/p-Si Schottky diode showed magnetic properties due to the effect of Ni in the heterostructure.