The synthesis and electrical characterization of Cu₂O/Al:ZnO radial p–n junction nanowire arrays

Abstract

Vertically aligned large-area p-Cu(2)O/n-AZO (Al-doped ZnO) radial heterojunction nanowire arrays were synthesized on silicon without using catalysts in thermal chemical vapor deposition followed by e-beam evaporation. Scanning electron microscopy and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy results show that poly-crystalline Cu(2)O nano-shells with thicknesses around 10 nm conformably formed on the entire periphery of pre-grown Al:ZnO single-crystalline nanowires. The Al doping concentration in the Al:ZnO nanowires with diameters around 50 nm were determined to be around 1.19 at.% by electron energy loss spectroscopy. Room-temperature photoluminescence spectra show that the broad green bands of pristine ZnO nanowires were eliminated by capping with Cu(2)O nano-shells. The current-voltage (I-V) measurements show that the p-Cu(2)O/n-AZO nanodiodes have well-defined current rectifying behavior. This paper provides a simple method to fabricate superior p-n radial nanowire arrays for developing nano-pixel optoelectronic devices and solar cells.

Growth and characterization of p-Cu2O/n-ZnO nanorod heterojunctions prepared by a two-step potentiostatic method

“…However, for the sample grown at 100°C, the nonlinear current density-voltage curve was obtained, indicative of formation of typical p-n junctions between p-Cu 2 O and n-ZnO nanorods. From the diode junction equation, the ideal factor of the p-Cu 2 O/n-ZnO nanorods was extracted to about 4.3, which was lower than the value of 8.8 reported for the p-Cu 2 O/n-AZO radial nanowires [28]. The relatively large diode ideal factor might be attributed to the trap-assisted tunneling and carrier leakage caused by defects in the interface between the p-Cu 2 O and n-ZnO nanorods [28].…”

“…From the diode junction equation, the ideal factor of the p-Cu 2 O/n-ZnO nanorods was extracted to about 4.3, which was lower than the value of 8.8 reported for the p-Cu 2 O/n-AZO radial nanowires [28]. The relatively large diode ideal factor might be attributed to the trap-assisted tunneling and carrier leakage caused by defects in the interface between the p-Cu 2 O and n-ZnO nanorods [28]. The rectification behavior confirms that the p-Cu 2 O/n-ZnO nanorod heterojunctions exhibit a well-defined junction characteristic.…”

Improvement of structural and electrical properties of Cu2O films with InN epilayers

“…The Cu 2 O thin films also presented the same symmetry, but with an in-plane 301 rotation between the unit cell axes of Cu 2 O and InN. Consequently, the in-plane orientation was [11-2] Cu 2 O// [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] InN. The in-plane relationship between InN and Cu 2 O was showed in Fig.…”

“…Recently, there has been some reports about the heterostructures of Cu 2 O with Si [9], TiO 2 [10], ZnO [11][12][13][14][15], and GaN [16], the heterostructures have been applied to several devices. However, as far as we know, there are scarcely reports on Cu 2 O/InN or InN/Cu 2 O.…”

Photoelectrosplitting Water Mechanism at Carbon Electrode Surface using Indoor lights

“…The power PV cells was measured using multi tester and the result as shown in Table 1. Increasing the ability of PV cells is because the nature of aluminum plates such as n-type junction that provides electron more than plates Cu that are p-type junction (13). Therefore, plate Al causes a potential difference greater PV cell so as to produce greater power (7).…”