Bipolar charge transport in intrinsic SiC on p- and n-Si heterostructures prepared by a room temperature aerosol deposition process

Abstract

Dense SiC layers with a thickness of 150 nm were prepared on n- and p-type Si substrates using aerosol deposition (AD) at room temperature. The contribution of electrons and holes to the conductivity in Ni/i-SiC/Si structures was investigated by conducting experiments involving the injection of carriers from silicon. Our results showed that the injection of carriers via light illumination and temperature experiments led to the generation of minority carriers, which contributed to the conductivity in the Ni/i-SiC/Si structures. The activation energies were found to be 0.8 eV and 0.4 eV for i-SiC/n-Si and i-SiC/p-Si, respectively. The conductivity of these Ni/i-SiC/Si structures was also affected by the trap-assisted tunneling process. The results indicate that the AD-prepared SiC/Si heterostructures could possibly be used to control bipolar conductivity and hold potential for application in temperature sensors and photovoltaics.