Bias and illumination-dependent room temperature negative differential conductance in Ni-doped ZnO/p-Si Schottky photodiodes for quantum optics applications

Richard O Ocaya; Yusuf Orman; Abdullah G Al-Sehemi; Aysegul Dere; Ahmed A Al-Ghamdi; Fahrettin Yakuphanoğlu

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e16269

Bias and illumination-dependent room temperature negative differential conductance in Ni-doped ZnO/p-Si Schottky photodiodes for quantum optics applications

Heliyon. 2023 May 18;9(5):e16269. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e16269. eCollection 2023 May.

Authors

Richard O Ocaya¹, Yusuf Orman², Abdullah G Al-Sehemi^{3

4

5}, Aysegul Dere⁶, Ahmed A Al-Ghamdi⁷, Fahrettin Yakuphanoğlu²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, University of the Free State, P. Bag X13, Phuthaditjhaba 9866, South Africa.
² Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Firat University, Elaziğ, Turkey.
³ Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, King Khalid University, Abha 61413, P.O. Box 9004, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Research Center for Advanced Materials Science, King Khalid University, Abha 61413, P.O. Box 9004, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Unit of Science and Technology, Faculty of Science, King Khalid University, Abha 61413, P.O. Box 9004, Saudi Arabia.
⁶ Vocational School of Technical Science, Department of Electric and Energy, Firat University, Elaziğ, Turkey.
⁷ Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

In this article, evidence for the existence of illumination and bias-dependent negative differential conductance (NDC) in Ni-doped Al/ZnO/p-Si Schottky diodes, and the possible mechanism for its origin, are presented. The atomic percentages of Ni doping were 0%, 3%, 5%, and 10%. NDC is observed between -1.5 V to -0.5 V in reverse bias under illumination, but only at certain doping levels and specific forward bias. Furthermore, the devices show excellent optoelectronic characteristics in the photoconductive and photovoltaic modes, with device open circuit voltages ranging from 0.03 V to 0.6 V under illumination.

Keywords: Bias; Illumination; Negative differential conductivity; Ni-doped ZnO; Series resistance compensation.