Exploration of organic additives-assisted vanadium pentoxide (V₂O₅) nanoparticles for Cu/n-V₂O₅/p-Si Schottky diode applications

The organic additives-assisted vanadium pentoxide (OA:V₂O₅) nanoparticles (NPs) were prepared by a facile co-precipitation method and their structural, optical, and electrical properties have been analyzed. The orthorhombic crystal structure was observed in the X-ray diffraction pattern of pure vanadium pentoxide (V₂O₅) NPs. The XRD patterns of OA: V₂O₅ NPs reveals that the crystallite size of the V₂O₅ NPs reduced without any change in the crystal structure. The SEM images showed that organic additives strongly influence on the surface morphology of the V₂O₅ NPs. The TEM analysis revealed that the acid-treated V₂O₅ NPs are relatively smaller in size compared to without acid-treated V₂O₅ NPs. From the optical measurements, an increase in optical band gap was observed for OA:V₂O₅ NPs. The dc electrical analysis revealed that the increased dc electrical conductivity is due to the incorporation of various organic additives (OA) in the V₂O₅ NPs. The electrical parameters such as ideality factor (n), barrier height (Ф_B), series resistance (R_s), and interface properties have been analyzed for the Cu/n-V₂O₅/p-Si Schottky diodes (SBDs) by the J–V, Cheung’s and Norde method. The barrier height value is increased for Cu/OA:V₂O₅/p-Si SBDs.