Ultraviolet photodetection properties of ZnO/Si heterojunction diodes fabricated by ALD technique without using a buffer layer

Abstract

The fabrication and characterization of a Si/ZnO thin film heterojunction ultraviolet photodiode has been presented in this paper. ZnO thin film of ~100 nm thick was deposited on <100> Silicon (Si) wafer by atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique. The Photoluminescence spectroscopy confirms that as-deposited ZnO thin film has excellent visible-blind UV response with almost no defects in the visible region. The room temperature current-voltage characteristics of the n-ZnO thin film/p-Si photodiodes are measured under an UV illumination of 650 <W at 365 nm in the applied voltage range of ±2V. The current-voltage characteristics demonstrate an excellent UV photoresponse of the device in its reverse bias operation with a contrast ratio of ~ 1115 and responsivity of ~0.075 A/W at 2 V reverse bias voltage.