Hibridni spoj strukturiranoga silicija i organskoga poluvodiča za detekciju infracrvene svjetlosti

Đerek, Vedran (2016) Hibridni spoj strukturiranoga silicija i organskoga poluvodiča za detekciju infracrvene svjetlosti. Doctoral thesis, Sveučilište u Zagreb, Prirodoslovno-matematički fakultet.

PDF - Published Version - other Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial. Download (36MB)

Abstract

Discovery of the sensitivity of the hybrid silicon/organic photodiodes in the near-infrared spectral range in 2009 by G. Matt in Linz has sparked not only purely academic interest, since the photo-sensitivity came from the sub-bandgap region of the both members that formed the hybrid heterojunction, but also has provoked interest with particular applications in mind. The telecom industry, using the spectral range of 1,3-1,6 μm for the long-range fiber telecommunications, is one of the possible users of such photodiodes if they could surpass the incumbent InGaAs photodetector technology ideally in both price and performance. However, the first photodiodes even after the optimization of the organic layer have remained far outside of the responsivity range necessary for the use in telecommunications. The topic of this thesis is the research of the possible improvement in responsivity of such photodiodes by structuring the silicon substrate on nano- and micro-scales prior to deposition of the thin organic layer. The assumption of improvement in photocurrent by the surface structuring came from research in the photovoltaics, where micro-structuring has been for a long time used for anti-reflection purposes, and as of recently nano and hierarchical structuring has successfully been used for light trapping and increase in cell effective surface area. To test the hypothesis differently structured silicon substrates were prepared by simple and affordable chemical etching methods. Surfaces with nano, micro or hierarchical micro-nano surface structuring were prepared, on top of which thin layers of organic semiconductor tyrian purple was deposited by hot-wall epitaxy, a vacuum deposition method known for producing high-quality films or small-molecule organic semiconductors. Ohmic contacts based on thin vacuum-evaporated aluminum films were placed on both silicon and organic semiconductor, forming a back-illuminated photodiode. Photoresponse of the diode was measured by J-V measurments under the excitation of nearinrfared laser light source. For all differently structured photodiodes large improvements in short-circut photocurrent in comparison to photodiodes prepared in the same conditions on planar substrates were observed. The highest improvement, up to two orders of magnitude, was measured for silicon micropyramid structured substrates, prepared by anisotropic etching of (100) oriented crystalline silicon substrates. Measurements of the spectral responsivity showed that the best performing photodiodes had the responsivity in the range of 4-5 mA/W under the reverse polarization of -1 V, at the telecom-relevant wavelenth of 1550 nm. Light trapping as a possible method for improvement of the increase in photocurrent was ruled out by a series of measurements of transmittance and reflectance of the structured heterojunctions in the visible and near-infrared spectral range. By comparison of the increase in effective surface area of the junction between planar and best performing micropyramid structured samples, increase in junction area was also ruled out as a possible mechanism of the increase in photocurrent. Previously published models of the band-diagrams and mechanism of NIR sensitivity of the photodiodes of a type-II heterojunction with the Anderson rule-like band alignment have predicted the dependence of the onset of the photocurrent on the LUMO level of the organic semiconductor. However, the complete lack of such behavior has brought forward an improved model containing the assumption of both the Fermi level and the organic HOMO level pinning to the near-midgap levels in silicon, which would explain the lack of variation of the barrier width measured as the energy of the photons causing the onset of the photocurrent. Electric-field assisted enhancement mechanism is proposed as a mechanism for increase of the photocurrent in the structured samples. It is demonstrated by numeric model that the increase in the electric field at the tip of the pyramid can be up to ten-fold in comparison to the electric field of an equipotential plane. Field-enhanced transport mechanisms such as the Fowler-Nordheim tunneling are strongly non-linearly dependent on the intensity of the electric field. If a mechanism of that type is responsible for the transport at the sharp points of the structured substrates, it would explain large improvements in the photocurrent.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral thesis)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	silicon; nano-structuring; micro-structuring; etching; organic semiconductor; photodiode; IR light detector
Subjects:	NATURAL SCIENCES > Physics > Condensed Matter Physics NATURAL SCIENCES > Chemistry > Physical Chemistry TECHNICAL SCIENCES > Basic Technical Sciences > Materials TECHNICAL SCIENCES > Interdisciplinary Technical Sciences > Micro and Nano Technologies
Divisions:	Division of Materials Physics
Projects:	Project title Project leader Project code Project type Hibriridne silicijske nanstrukture za senzorik-NANOSENS Mile Ivanda IP-2014-09-7046 HRZZ Fizika i primjena nanostruktura i volumne tvari- Mile Ivanda 098-0982904-2898 MZOS
Depositing User:	Vedran Đerek
Date Deposited:	06 Jun 2017 10:18
URI:	http://fulir.irb.hr/id/eprint/3492

Actions (login required)

View Item