LAUSR

Abstract Herein, we present the development and characterization of Yttrium oxide (Y2O3) films and Al/Y2O3/n-Si heterojunction diodes at various substrate temperatures using a low-cost facile jet nebulizer spray pyrolysis (JNSP) technique. The X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) pattern proved polycrystalline films of Y2O3 with a cubic structure. Field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) images reveal very fine nanograins formation in Y2O3 films at all temperatures. Scanning probe microscopy (SPM) analysis shows very low roughness of all films. The detailed compositional/homogeneity analysis was done via energy dispersive X-ray (EDX)/e-mapping analysis. All the films exhibited a sharp absorption edge at ∼ 280 nm, and the estimated energy gap values were noticed between 4.5 to 5.5 eV. Moreover, the observed photoluminescence (PL) spectrum indicated that the intensity of emission peaks quenched ∼ 3 times, indicating the reduction of defects with substrate temperature. From the current – voltage (I-V) characteristic, the calculated ideality factor (n) value was noticed to be drastically reduced from 7.66 and 2.87 on increasing the substrate temperature. Further, the diode ideality factor, series resistance (Rs) and barrier height (ФB) were obtained from Cheung's method. The results revealed that the developed Al/Y2O3/n-Si heterojunction diode is a promising contender for optoelectronic devices.