Electrical and carrier transport properties of Ti/α-amylase/p-InP MPS junction with a α-amylase polymer interlayer

This paper demonstrates the electrical and current transport properties of prepared Ti/α-amylase/p-InP metal/polymer/semiconductor (MPS) junction by current–voltage (I–V) approach. The microstructure of the fabricated MPS junction is confirmed by transmission electron microcopy (TEM) measurement. The MPS junction exhibited a good rectification nature over the Ti/p-InP metal/semiconductor (MS) junction. The derived barrier height (BH) of MPS junction (0.78 eV) is higher than the MS junction (0.70 eV), that indicates the BH is influenced by the polymer layer. The BH is extracted by the I–V, Z(V)–V_d plot, Cheung’s function, α(V)–V plot, Norde method and Ψ_s–V plot and found the values are comparable with one another, which indicates their steadiness and validity. The estimated interface state density (N_SS) of the MPS junction is less than the MS junction, suggesting that the α-amylase layer decreased the N_SS value. The forward log (I)–log (V) plot of the MS and MPS junctions reveals the ohmic nature at lower-bias region and space-charge-limited conduction at higher-bias region. Results reveal that the reverse leakage current conduction mechanism of the MS and MPS junctions is governed by Poole–Frenkel emission in lower-bias region, whereas, at higher bias region, Schottky emission is dominant current conduction mechanism. These exploration results establish that the α-amylase polymer layer is potential for use in organic–inorganic devices.