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.