Fabrication and characterization of solution processed n-ZnO nanowire/p-Si heterojunction device

This paper reports the results on the fabrication and characterization of n-ZnO nanowire/p-Si heterojunction devices. ZnO nanowires were grown on p-Si substrates by two step chemical solution process at low temperature. The ZnO nanowires grown vertically on silicon substrates were characterized by FESEM, EDX and PL. Heterojunction devices of n-ZnO nanowires/p-Si were fabricated and characterized for their photo, thermal and electrical responses. The ZnO nanowires grown were found to show piezoelectric nature and its effect has also been demonstrated. I-V characteristics of the fabricated n-ZnO/p-Si hetero-junction device showed rectifying behavior at different temperatures. The turn-on voltage of the fabricated ZnO nanowire/silicon devices was 0.45 V in the ambient condition. The ideality factor of the devices determined at low bias voltage is about 7.5, which indicates the defects induced tunneling of the junction.