Performance of copper and palladium metal-semiconductor Schottky diode for optoelectronics

The growth of ZnO nanorods (NRs) have been performed by chemical bath deposition (CBD) method on ITO glass substrate. The optical properties along with the structural of ZnO NRs were studies by Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM), energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), and UV-Visible (UV-Vis) analysis. A 100 nm of Cu metal and Pd metal were deposited on top of synthesized ZnO NRs via sputtering. The electrical properties including I-V characteristics, rectifying ratio, Schottky Barrier Height (SBH) and ideality factor were investigated. Difference in work function for both metals resulting in different I-V characteristics, hence different value of rectifying ratio, SBH and ideality factor. The Cu sample possessed rectifying ratio, SBH and ideality factor of 1.07, 0.66 eV and 6.1 respectively, while Pd sample exhibits 87.84, 0.43 eV and 5 respectively. These intriguing values made possible for these metals to potentially serve as contact for ZnO-based optoelectronics devices, e.g LED, and random laser.