LAUSR

Abstract$$\hbox {Cu}_{{2}}\hbox {ZnSnTe}_{4}$$Cu2ZnSnTe4 (CZTTe) thin films with In metal contact were deposited by thermal evaporation on monocrystalline n-type Si wafers with Ag ohmic contact to investigate the device characteristics of an In/CZTTe/Si/Ag diode. The variation in electrical characteristics of the diode was analysed by carrying out current–voltage (I–V) measurements in the temperature range of 220–360 K. The forward bias I–V behaviour was modelled according to the thermionic emission (TE) theory to obtain main diode parameters. In addition, the experimental data were detailed by taking into account the presence of an interfacial layer and possible dominant current transport mechanisms were studied under analysis of ideality factor, n. Strong effects of temperature were observed on zero-bias barrier height $$(\Phi _{\mathrm{B}0} )$$(ΦB0) and n values due to barrier height inhomogeneity at the interface. The anomaly observed in the analysis of TE was modelled by Gaussian distribution (GD) of barrier heights with 0.844 eV mean barrier height and 0.132 V standard deviation. According to the Tung’s theoretical approach, a linear correlation between $$\Phi _{\mathrm{B}0} $$ΦB0 and n cannot be satisfied, and thus the modified Richardson plot was used to determine Richardson constant $$(A^{*})$$(A∗). As a result, $$A^{*}$$A∗ was calculated approximately as $$120.6\hbox { A cm}^{-2}~\hbox {K}^{-2}$$120.6Acm-2K-2 very close to the theoretical value for n-Si. In addition, the effects of series resistance $$(R_{\mathrm{s}} )$$(Rs) by estimating from Cheng’s function and density of surface states $$(N_{\mathrm{ss}} )$$(Nss) by taking the bias dependence of effective barrier height, were discussed.