Diode Parameters of Heterojunctions Comprising p-Type Ultrananocrystalline Diamond Films and n-Type Si Substrates

In the current research, heterojunctions comprising p-type ultrananocrystalline diamond/hydrogenated amorphous carbon composite (UNCD/a-C: H) films and n-type Si substrates were formed via pulsed laser deposition. To extract their junction parameters via thermionic emission (TE) theory and Norde model, the measurement of dark current density-voltage curves was carried out under various temperatures ranging from 300 to 60 K. Through TE theory, the ideality factor values at 300 K and 60 K were 2.70 and 8.66, respectively. This justified that a heavy recombination process occurs at the junction interface in addition to another tunneling process at 300 K. The tunneling process is predominant at low temperatures. The barrier height values were 0.78 eV and 0.18 eV at 300 K and 60 K, respectively. The values for series resistance (R-s) calculated via Norde model at 300 K and 60 K were 275.24 Omega and 78.66 k Omega, respectively. The increment of R-s at low temperatures was likely due to the decrease of carrier concentration in the B-doped UNCD/a-C: H films when temperature was decreased.