Experimental and computational investigation of graphene/SAMs/n-Si Schottky diodes

Highlights: • Electrical characteristics of graphene based Schottky diodes investigated after the modification of n-Si substrates with novel TPA and CAR SAMs. • SAMs modified devices exhibit better diode performance than bare device in terms of VT, SBH and Rs. • Device characteristics of SAMs of CAR/BLG are directly related to the order of HOMO-LUMO levels. We have investigated the effect of two different self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on electrical characteristics of bilayer graphene (BLG)/n-Si Schottky diodes. Novel 4″bis(diphenylamino)-1, 1′:3″-terphenyl-5′ carboxylic acids (TPA) and 4,4-di-9H-carbazol-9-yl-1,1′:3′1′-terphenyl-5′ carboxylic acid (CAR) aromatic SAMs have been used to modify n-Si surfaces. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) and Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) results have been evaluated to verify the modification of n-Si surface. The current–voltage (I–V) characteristics of bare and SAMs modified devices show rectification behaviour verifying a Schottky junction at the interface. The ideality factors (n) from ln(I)–V dependences were determined as 2.13, 1.96 and 2.07 for BLG/n-Si, BLG/TPA/n-Si and BLG/CAR/n-Si Schottky diodes, respectively. In addition, Schottky barrier height (SBH) and series resistance (R_s) of SAMs modified diodes were decreased compared to bare diode due to the formation of a compatible interface between graphene and Si as well as π–π interaction between aromatic SAMs and graphene. The CAR-based device exhibits better diode characteristic compared to the TPA-based device. Computational simulations show that the BLG/CAR system exhibits smaller energy-level-differences than the BLG/TPA, which supports the experimental findings of a lower Schottky barrier and series resistance in BLG/CAR diode.