Reduced graphene oxide-silicon interface involving direct Si-O bonding as a conductive and mechanical stable ohmic contact

Soraya Rahpeima; Essam M Dief; Chandramalika R Peiris; Stuart Ferrie; Alex Duan; Simone Ciampi; Colin L Raston; Nadim Darwish

doi:10.1039/d0cc02310h

Reduced graphene oxide-silicon interface involving direct Si-O bonding as a conductive and mechanical stable ohmic contact

Chem Commun (Camb). 2020 Jun 9;56(46):6209-6212. doi: 10.1039/d0cc02310h.

Authors

Soraya Rahpeima¹, Essam M Dief², Chandramalika R Peiris², Stuart Ferrie², Alex Duan³, Simone Ciampi², Colin L Raston⁴, Nadim Darwish²

Affiliations

¹ School of Molecular and Life Sciences, Curtin Institute of Functional Molecules and Interfaces, Curtin University, Bentley, WA 6102, Australia. nadim.darwish@curtin.edu.au and Flinders Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology, College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia. colin.raston@flinders.edu.au.
² School of Molecular and Life Sciences, Curtin Institute of Functional Molecules and Interfaces, Curtin University, Bentley, WA 6102, Australia. nadim.darwish@curtin.edu.au.
³ Trace Analysis for Chemical, Earth and Environmental Sciences (TrACEES), The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia.
⁴ Flinders Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology, College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia. colin.raston@flinders.edu.au.

PMID: 32365148
DOI: 10.1039/d0cc02310h

Abstract

Metal-semiconductor junctions are essential contacts for semiconductor devices, but high contact junction resistance is a limiting operational factor. Here, we establish an ohmic contact of low resistance of <4 × 10-6 Ω cm2 between platinum and n-type Si (111)-H surfaces. This involved Si-O covalent bonding a monolayer of graphene oxide (GO) to the Si surface followed by electrochemical reduction to form reduced graphene oxide (rGO). Current-voltage plots demonstrate that the GO/rGO transformation is associated with a change from a rectifying to an ohmic contact. The process is a viable method for constructing semiconductor-rGO interfaces and demonstrates that GO/rGO monolayers can be used as active components in tuning the contact resistance of metal-semiconductor junctions.