Fabrication and characterization of Si/SiO₂/TiO₂/ZnO heterostructures from sputtered and oxidized Ti-film

Abstract

The present work reports the fabrication of p-Si/SiO 2 /TiO 2 and p-Si/SiO 2 /TiO 2 /ZnO heterostructures deposited by RF sputtering on p-Si substrate. The structural properties of the heterostructures were characterized by X-ray reflectivity and SIMS depth profiling. The electrical and optical properties of the heterostructures were investigated by I − V , C-V measurements and VIS spectroscopy, respectively. The measurements reveal that I − V characteristics in dark show semiconductor-insulator-semiconductor (SIS) structure properties. The I − V characteristics under illumination exhibit changes with significant increase of photocurrent due to photoassisted tunnelling and injection through SiO 2 /TiO 2 interlayer. K e y w o r d s: SIS heterostructures, thin films, Ga-doped ZnO, TiO 2 , Si, SIMS, I − V characteristics, spectroscopy

Structural Design of TiO2/Si Hybrid Photoelectrode and Pt-Free Counter Photoelectrodes for Charge Carrier Separation in Water-Splitting Reactions

“…A single, stable, and preferably autonomous system for solar-tohydrogen conversion became a goal in the photocatalysis field. 17 Many different approaches to efficient water-to-hydrogen production have been proposed: "sandwich" or more complex structures with other materials, [18][19][20][21] combining two photocatalysts, [22][23][24] and a multilayer of only TiO 2 itself. [25][26][27] However, the aim should be a simple yet effective TiO 2 HPE structure, and to achieve it, there are two important factors to consider.…”