The effects of different doses of electron radiation on the electrical characteristics of ZnO interfacial Zn/n-Si junction

In this work, we have investigated the electrical characteristics of Zn/ZnO/n-Si/Au-Sb Schottky diodes before and after different doses (25 and 50 Gray) of electron-irradiation at room temperature. Initially, the ohmic contact has been made on n-Si semiconductor with Au-Sb alloy. After this process the ZnO thin film was grown on n-Si semiconductor by using RF magnetron sputtering system, and then the contact area is determined by sputtered Zn metal to surface of ZnO in DC sputtering system at about 10-6 Torr. The characteristic parameters of the junction such as ideality factor and barrier height values are calculated from I to V measurements and the carrier concentration, Fermi energy, diffusion potential, and barrier height values are calculated from reverse bias C-2–V measurements at various frequencies and room temperature. The I–V and C–V measurements of these diodes performed at room temperature and in dark. Experimental results showed that the values of the ideality factor increased and barrier height from forward-bias I–V measurements decreased and diffusion potential and the values of the barrier height obtained from reverse-bias C–V measurements decreased after electron-irradiation. However, changes in the characteristic parameters of the ZnO interfacial layer diode in 25 Gray of electron-irradiation were found to be less than those of the 50 Gray of electron-irradiation.