Deposition of V2O5 thin films by sputtering method and their usage in the fabrication of diodes

In this study, V2O5 thin films were deposited onto glass and p-Si substrates by reactive sputtering method. In the reactive sputtering process, V target was used as metal source and O2 gas was used as reactive gas. After the sputtering, the films were annealed at high temperature to improve film quality. Then Ag was evaporated onto V2O5/p-Si structure and diode production was realized. The optical properties of thin films formed on glass were examined and it was determined that the film had a transmission of 78% at wavelengths greater than 600 nm. With the help of absorption-wavelength data, the band gap of the thin film was calculated as 2.1 eV. This result was shown that the thin films were at V2O5 structure. Current-voltage (I-V) measurements of the Ag/V2O5/ p-Si structures at room temperature and in the dark showed that the structure had rectifying properties. I -V and capacitance voltage (C-V) data of Ag/V2O5/p-Si diode was used to detemine the basic electronic parameters such as barrier height, ideality factor and series resistance. It has been shown that the barrier height of the Ag /V2O5/p-Si structure is higher than that of the classical Ag/p-Si diode, and that the electrical properties of the V2O5 interlayer conventional metal-semiconductor (MS) contacts can be modified. Finally, the I-V measurements of the Ag/V2O5/ p-Si diode were repeated under a solar simulator at different light intensities and it was found that the reverse bias current increased with light intensity, means the structure exhibited photodiode properties.