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Nano Research 2012, 5(1): 33-42 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-011-0182-1
Research Article | Issue | Published: 16 November 2011

Doping-Free Fabrication of Carbon Nanotube Thin-Film Diodes and Their Photovoltaic Characteristics

Show Author's Information Qingsheng Zeng1,  Sheng Wang1( ),  Leijing Yang1,  Zhenxing Wang1,  Zhiyong Zhang1,  Lianmao Peng1( ),  Weiya Zhou2,  Sishen Xie2( )
Key Laboratory for the Physics and Chemistry of NanodevicesDepartment of ElectronicsPeking UniversityBeijing100871China
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter PhysicsInstitute of PhysicsChinese Academy of SciencesBeijing100190China
Keywords:
thin film, Carbon nanotube, photovoltaic, diodes, doping-free
Cite this article:
Zeng Q, Wang S, Yang L, et al. Doping-Free Fabrication of Carbon Nanotube Thin-Film Diodes and Their Photovoltaic Characteristics. Nano Research, 2012, 5(1): 33-42. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-011-0182-1
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Abstract Full text About this article

Random networks of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) were have been grown by chemical vapor deposition on silicon wafers and used for fabricating field-effect transistors (FETs) using symmetric Pd contacts and diodes using asymmetrical Pd and Sc contacts. For a short channel FET or diode with a channel length of about 1 μm or less, the device works in the direct transport regime, while for a longer channel device the transport mechanism changes to percolation. Detailed electronic and photovoltaic (PV) characterizations of these carbon nanotube (CNT) thin-film devices was carried out. While as-fabricated FETs exhibited typical p-type transfer characteristics, with a large current ON/OFF ratio of more than 104 when metallic CNTs were removed via a controlled breakdown, it was found that the threshold voltage for the devices was typically very large, of the order of about 10 V. This situation was greatly improved when the device was coated with a passivation layer of 12 nm HfO2, which effectively moved the threshold voltages of both FET and diode back to center around zero or turned these device to their OFF states when no bias was applied on the gate. PV measurements were then made on the short channel diodes under infrared laser illumination. It was shown that under an illumination power density of 1.5 kW/cm2, the device resulted in an open circuit voltage VOC = 0.21 V and a short circuit current ISC = 3.74 nA. Furthermore, we compared PV characteristics of CNT film diodes with different channel lengths, and found that the power transform efficiency decreased significantly when the device changed from the direct transport to the percolation regime.


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About this article

Doping-Free Fabrication of Carbon Nanotube Thin-Film Diodes and Their Photovoltaic Characteristics

Show Author's information Qingsheng Zeng1, Sheng Wang1( ), Leijing Yang1, Zhenxing Wang1, Zhiyong Zhang1, Lianmao Peng1( ), Weiya Zhou2, Sishen Xie2( )
Key Laboratory for the Physics and Chemistry of NanodevicesDepartment of ElectronicsPeking UniversityBeijing100871China
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter PhysicsInstitute of PhysicsChinese Academy of SciencesBeijing100190China

Abstract

Random networks of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) were have been grown by chemical vapor deposition on silicon wafers and used for fabricating field-effect transistors (FETs) using symmetric Pd contacts and diodes using asymmetrical Pd and Sc contacts. For a short channel FET or diode with a channel length of about 1 μm or less, the device works in the direct transport regime, while for a longer channel device the transport mechanism changes to percolation. Detailed electronic and photovoltaic (PV) characterizations of these carbon nanotube (CNT) thin-film devices was carried out. While as-fabricated FETs exhibited typical p-type transfer characteristics, with a large current ON/OFF ratio of more than 104 when metallic CNTs were removed via a controlled breakdown, it was found that the threshold voltage for the devices was typically very large, of the order of about 10 V. This situation was greatly improved when the device was coated with a passivation layer of 12 nm HfO2, which effectively moved the threshold voltages of both FET and diode back to center around zero or turned these device to their OFF states when no bias was applied on the gate. PV measurements were then made on the short channel diodes under infrared laser illumination. It was shown that under an illumination power density of 1.5 kW/cm2, the device resulted in an open circuit voltage VOC = 0.21 V and a short circuit current ISC = 3.74 nA. Furthermore, we compared PV characteristics of CNT film diodes with different channel lengths, and found that the power transform efficiency decreased significantly when the device changed from the direct transport to the percolation regime.

Keywords: thin film, Carbon nanotube, photovoltaic, diodes, doping-free

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Publication history
Copyright
Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 07 September 2011
Revised: 20 October 2011
Accepted: 23 October 2011
Published: 16 November 2011
Issue date: January 2012

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology (Grant Nos. 2011CB933002, 2011CB933001, and 2012CB932302), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, the National Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61071013, 61001016, 51072006, 60971003, 90921012, and 51172271), and Beijing Municipal Education Commission (Grant No. YB20108000101).

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