Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Physics, Faculty of Physical and Numerical Sciences, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, Mardan, 23200, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
  • 2 Department of Physics, Faculty of Physical and Numerical Sciences, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, Mardan, 23200, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. tahir@awkum.edu.pk
  • 3 Department of Physics, Davangere University, Davangere, 577 007, Karnataka, India
  • 4 Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, 50603, Malaysia
  • 5 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, 50603, Malaysia
  • 6 Department of Electric, Electronics and System Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, 43600, Malaysia
Sci Rep, 2020 Mar 16;10(1):4828.
PMID: 32179797 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-61602-1

Abstract

This paper reports the potential application of cadmium selenide (CdSe) quantum dots (QDs) in improving the microelectronic characteristics of Schottky barrier diode (SBD) prepared from a semiconducting material poly-(9,9-dioctylfluorene) (F8). Two SBDs, Ag/F8/P3HT/ITO and Ag/F8-CdSe QDs/P3HT/ITO, are fabricated by spin coating a 10 wt% solution of F8 in chloroform and 10:1 wt% solution of F8:CdSe QDs, respectively, on a pre-deposited poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) on indium tin oxide (ITO) substrate. To study the electronic properties of the fabricated devices, current-voltage (I-V) measurements are carried out at 25 °C in dark conditions. The I-V curves of Ag/F8/P3HT/ITO and Ag/F8-CdSe QDs/P3HT/ITO SBDs demonstrate asymmetrical behavior with forward bias current rectification ratio (RR) of 7.42 ± 0.02 and 142 ± 0.02, respectively, at ± 3.5 V which confirm the formation of depletion region. Other key parameters which govern microelectronic properties of the fabricated devices such as charge carrier mobility (µ), barrier height (ϕb), series resistance (Rs) and quality factor (n) are extracted from their corresponding I-V characteristics. Norde's and Cheung functions are also applied to characterize the devices to study consistency in various parameters. Significant improvement is found in the values of Rs, n, and RR by 3, 1.7, and 19 times, respectively, for Ag/F8-CdSe QDs/P3HT/ITO SBD as compared to Ag/F8/P3HT/ITO. This enhancement is due to the incorporation of CdSe QDs having 3-dimensional quantum confinement and large surface-to-volume area. Poole-Frenkle and Richardson-Schottky conduction mechanisms are also discussed for both of the devices. Morphology, optical bandgap (1.88 ± 0.5 eV) and photoluminescence (PL) spectrum of CdSe QDs with a peak intensity at 556 nm are also reported and discussed.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.