The use of PVP polymer and PVP:Gd2O3 nanocomposite interlayers to improve electrical features of Schottky barrier diodes

This study investigates the electrical performance of Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) using a polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) interlayer doped with microwave-synthesized Gd₂O₃ nanostructures. Structural and optical properties of Gd₂O₃ were characterized by XRD, UV–Vis, FE-SEM, and EDX analyses. Electrical parameters, including barrier height, ideality factor, leakage current, and resistance values, were extracted using thermionic emission theory, Cheung’s method, and the modified Norde function. The incorporation of the PVP:Gd₂O₃ interfacial layer increased the zero-bias barrier height from 0.575 eV to 0.782 eV, enhanced the rectification ratio from 21 to 1440, and reduced the reverse leakage current by nearly four orders of magnitude compared to the conventional Au/n-Si SBD. Additionally, the ideality factor decreased from 6.86 to approximately 5.2, indicating improved interface quality. These results demonstrate that the PVP:Gd₂O₃ nanocomposite is an effective interlayer material for improving the performance of SBDs in nano-electronic and optoelectronic applications.