Effect of Aromatic SAMs Molecules on Graphene/Silicon Schottky Diode Performance

Au/n-Si/Graphene/Au Schottky diodes were fabricated by transferring atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposited (APCVD) graphene on silicon substrates. Graphene/n-Si interface properties were improved by using 5-[(3-methylphenyl)(phenyl) amino]isophthalic acid (MePIFA) and 5-(diphenyl)amino]isophthalic acid (DPIFA) aromatic self-assembled monolayer (SAM) molecules. The surface morphologies of modified and non-modified films were investigated by atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The surface potential characteristics were obtained by Kelvin-probe force microscopy and found as 0.158 V, 0.188 V and 0,383 V as a result of SAMs modification. The ideality factors of n-Si/Graphene, n-Si/MePIFA/Graphene and n-Si/DPIFA/Graphene diodes were found as 1.07, 1.13 and 1.15, respectively. Due to the chain length of aromatic organic MePIFA and DPIFA molecules, also the barrier height B values of the devices were decreased. While the barrier height of n-Si/Graphene diode was obtained as 0.931 eV, n-Si/MePIFA/Graphene and n-Si/DPIFA/Graphene diodes have barrier height of 0.820 and 0.720 eV, respectively.