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Polycrystalline Erbium Phthalocyanine Thin Films Deposited on Silicon and Porous Silicon by Ultrasonic Spray Pyrolysis: Optical, Morphological, and Electrical Characterizations

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Abstract

Conventional inorganic semiconductors are the basis of modern electronics but their properties limit performance for certain applications. Two relevant applications for which these materials are not suitable are: (1) non-planar or flexible devices and (2) large-area prototypes. This limitation has driven the research of a new generation of thin film organic semiconductor materials that can be incorporated in hybrid heterostructures. These materials can be deposited on different substrates at low temperatures and at low cost, from a solution by using a simple method such as spin-coating. Here, we report the development of a low-cost ultrasonic spray pyrolysis (USP) instrument to obtain, by a simple and efficient technique, erbium phthalocyanine (ErPc) polycrystalline thin films incorporated into the Al/c-Si/ErPc/Ni and Al/c-Si/PS/ErPc/Ni heterostructures and their concomitant characterization. For the formation of the porous silicon (PS) layer and the deposition of the ErPc material, metal-assisted chemical etching (MACE) and USP were respectively used. The morphological, optical, and electrical properties were studied thoroughly. FE-SEM micrographs show a noteworthy result; non-agglomerated nanosphere particles were obtained on the c-Si substrates in contrast with the PS layer, where agglomerations are pretty apparent to the sight. Different equations were tested to find the transport mechanism in the heterostructures and the best fit was for the space charge limited current (SCLC) type. Finally, current–time (I–T) measurements were carried out to gain insight into the photocurrent effects. These results show a photo-response with a reverse polarization, and this can be applied for the design of organic hybrid heterostructures in photo-sensor applications.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank CONACYT for its financial support through scholarship numbers 700475 and 568124. We are also thankful to the Instituto Nacional de Astrofisica Optica y Electronica (INAOE) for the SEM and I–V, I–T measurements, and the Instituto de Física (IFUAP) for the measurements of diffuse reflectance. Finally, we express our gratitude to the Instituto de Química de la UNAM for the mass spectrometry analysis of ErPc.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla, Calle 21 sur #1103 Barrio Santiago, C.P. 72410, Puebla, Mexico

    D. H. Cuate-Gomez

  2. Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica Óptica y Electrónica, Calle Luis Enrique Erro, C.P. 72840, Santa María Tonantzintla Puebla, Mexico

    A. Garzon-Roman & C. Zuñiga-Islas

  3. Centro de Investigación en Dispositivos Semiconductores, Instituto de Ciencias Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, Av. Sn. Claudio y Blvd. 14 sur, Ciudad Universitaria Puebla, Puebla, Mexico

    J. L. Sosa-Sánchez & Miguel A. Dominguez

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  1. D. H. Cuate-Gomez
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DHCG and AGR carried out the implementation of the experimental set-up, the characterization tests and wrote the manuscript, JLSS, CZI and MAD supervised the study and made the corresponding corrections to the manuscript.

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Cuate-Gomez, D.H., Garzon-Roman, A., Sosa-Sánchez, J.L. et al. Polycrystalline Erbium Phthalocyanine Thin Films Deposited on Silicon and Porous Silicon by Ultrasonic Spray Pyrolysis: Optical, Morphological, and Electrical Characterizations. J. Electron. Mater. 50, 6951–6963 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-021-09264-1

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