Photoresponse of the Al/n-Si Schottky diode with nanorod ZnO interface layer prepared by hydrothermal method

In this study, ZnO nanorods (ZnO-NR) were prepared on n-Si wafer by hydrothermal method. Structural and morphologic properties of ZnO nanostructures were investigated through XRD and SEM method. The illumination impacts on the current-voltage (I-V) measurements of the prepared Al/ZnO-NR/n-Si diode were explored in the dark and different illumination intensities (20–100 mW/cm2) between ± 1.5 V bias voltage range. The Schottky diode barrier height value had an increasing trend with increasing illumination intensity from 20 to 100 mW/cm2 while the ideality factor had a decreasing trend with the increase of photocurrent. The temporary photocurrent increases as illumination intensity increases. The slope (α) of the logI_ph-logP curve was obtained as 0.618 and this slope confirmed that this ZnO nanorod shows photoconducting behavior. The short-circuit current (I_sc) and open-circuit voltage (V_oc) values were obtained to be 774.08 μA and 0.24 V under 100 mW/cm2 illumination intensity, respectively. It was concluded that the prepared Al/ZnO-NR/n-Si diode can be used in the optoelectronic applications, especially for the photodiode industry.