Electronic transport for graphene/n-type Si Schottky diodes with and without H₂O₂ treatment

Developing better contacts on Si is one of the main challenges for Si-based device technology. The present work reports the fabrication and detailed electrical properties of graphene/n-type Si Schottky diodes. The graphene/n-type Si Schottky diode without H₂O₂ treatment shows a poor rectifying behavior with an ideality factor (η) of 3.5 and high leakage. η > 2 implies that the interfacial defects influence the electronic conduction through the device. However, the graphene/n-type Si Schottky diode with H₂O₂ treatment shows a good rectifying behavior with η of 1.9 and low leakage. Such an improvement indicates that a good passivation is formed at the interface as a result of the reduction of the defect density. These experimental demonstrations suggest that it may be possible to minimize the adverse effects of the interface states to obtain functional devices using H₂O₂ treatment.