Microstructural, electrical and frequency-dependent properties of Au/p-Cu₂ZnSnS₄/n-GaN heterojunction

An Au/Cu₂ZnSnS₄ (CZTS)/n-GaN heterojunction (HJ) is fabricated with a CZTS interlayer and probed its chemical states, structural, electrical and frequency-dependent characteristics by XPS, TEM, I-V and C-V measurements. XPS and TEM results confirmed that the CZTS films are formed on the n-GaN surface. The band gap of deposited CZTS film is found to be 1.55 eV. The electrical properties of HJ correlated with the Au/n-GaN Schottky junction (SJ). The Au/CZTS/n-GaN HJ reveals a good rectification nature with high barrier height (0.82 eV) compared to the Au/n-GaN SJ (0.69 eV), which suggests the barrier height is influenced by the CZTS interlayer. The barrier height values assessed by I-V, Cheung's and Norde functions are closely matched with one other, thus the methods used here are reliable and valid. The extracted interface state density (N_SS) of Au/CZTS/n-GaN HJ is lower compared to the Au/n-GaN SJ that suggests the CZTS interlayer plays an important role in the reduction of N_SS. Moreover, the capacitance-frequency (C-f) and conductance-frequency (G-f) characteristics of SJ and HJ are measured in the range of 1 kHz–1 MHz, and found that the capacitance and conductance strappingly dependent on frequency. It is found that the N_SS estimated from C-f and G-f characteristics is lower compared to those estimated from I-V characteristics. Analysis confirmed that Poole-Frenkel emission dominates the reverse leakage current in both SJ and HJ, probably related to the structural defects and trap levels in the CZTS interlayer.