RUSSIAN JOURNAL OF ELECTROCHEMISTRY, vol.59, no.12, pp.1183-1193, 2023 (SCI-Expanded)
The n- type silicon nanowires with vertically aligned different lengths and diameters were produced from the commercial n-type silicon wafers with orientation using the metal assisted chemical etching method. Then, in order to fabricate p-type cuprous oxide/n-type silicon nanowire heterojunctions, the p-type cuprous oxide thin films were electrodeposited on the produced n-silicon nanowires. The X-ray diffraction patterns revealed that both the n-type silicon nanowires and p-type cuprous oxide/n-type silicon nanowire heterojunctions have cubic structure with a single phase. The cross-section field emission scanning electron microscopy images clearly showed the formation of the nanowires that have different lengths and diameters changing with the etching time. The optical characterizations by ultraviolet-visible-near infrared region spectrometry indicated that the reflectivity values of silicon nanowires and p-cuprous oxide/n-type silicon nanowire heterojunctions are much lower that of n-type silicon wafer. In addition, the diode performances of the heterojunctions were determined by current–voltage measurements and their ideality factors were found to be changed considerably depending on the structure of nanowires.