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Solar Energy 132 (2016) 96102
www.elsevier.com/locate/solener

Relationship between photovoltaic and diode characteristic

parameters in the Sn/p-Si Schottky type photovoltaics
A. Ozkartal, C. Temirci
Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Yuzuncu Yil University, 65080 Van, Turkey
Received 27 November 2015; received in revised form 8 February 2016; accepted 17 February 2016
Available online 14 March 2016
Communicated by: Associate Editor Takhir M. Razykov

Abstract
In order to investigate relationship between photovoltaic and diode characteristic parameters, we fabricated four kinds of samples of
Sn/p-Si Schottky type photovoltaics using surface treatment by anodic oxidation and chemical etching method. Diode and photovoltaic
characteristics of the samples were determined from the currentvoltage measurements performed in dark and under illumination. Etching time of front surface of the p-Si substrate in HF solution used in the fabrication of Sn/p-Si Schottky type photovoltaics was found to
be very inuential on diode and photovoltaic parameters. Especially, an etching time of 30 s showed a positive eect both on diode and
photovoltaic characteristic parameters. It was also observed that the characteristic parameters of the samples were aected negatively
depending on the over-etching time. More importantly, a close relationship between photovoltaic parameters (ll factor, conversion eciency) and diode parameters (ideality factor, series resistance) was observed.
2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Photovoltaic; Schottky; Diode; Surface treatment

1. Introduction
During the fabrication of metal/semiconductor
rectifying contacts, an oxide layer on the surface of inorganic semiconductors may form. Diode characteristic
parameters such as ideality factor (n), barrier height Ub ,
series resistance (Rs) can be aected by the oxide layer
(Cowley and Sze, 1965; Card and Rhoderick, 1971; Sze,
1981; Rhoderick and Williams, 1988). In other words, the
characteristics of Schottky diode with an interface layer
may not obey the ideal Schottky theory. In the Schottky
diode fabrication, eects of interface states on the
currentvoltage characteristics had been investigated
Corresponding author. Tel.: +90 544 804 39 54; fax: +90 432 225 18

02.
E-mail address: cabirtemirci@gmail.com (C. Temirci).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2016.02.056
0038-092X/ 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

previously by a controlled surface oxidation and removal

of the surface oxide layer (Ziel, 1968). Interface states have
a dominant role on contact characteristics of a metal/
semiconductor rectifying structures. Thus, the photovoltaic
characteristics of Schottky type photovoltaic can be
inuenced from the surface treatment. We had investigated
the eect of surface treatment on diode characteristics in
Sn/p-Si Schottky diodes before (Temirci et al., 2001).
However, the goal of the present study is to investigate
relationships between photovoltaic and diode characteristic
parameters in Sn/p-Si Schottky type photovoltaics. For
this reason, four kinds of Sn/p-Si Schottky type
photovoltaics were produced using anodic oxidation
and chemical surface cleaning procedure together.
The relationships between photovoltaic and diode
parameters such as ll factor, conversion eciency,
ideality factor, series resistance were interpreted as an

A. Ozkartal, C. Temirci / Solar Energy 132 (2016) 96102

inuence of surface treatment by anodization-chemical

etching process.
2. Experimental procedure
P-type Si wafer with (1 0 0) orientation and resistivity of
110 X cm was used to fabricate Sn/p-Si contacts. The
wafer was chemically cleaned using the standard RCA procedure (10-min boil in NH4 + H2O2 + 6H2O followed by a
10-min boil in HCl + H2O2 + 6H2O) and etched with
dilute HF:H2O (1:10) for 30 s to remove the native oxide
layer on the surface. Before each step, the wafer was rinsed
in deionized water with a resistivity of 18 MX. Then it was
dried under N2 atmosphere and inserted into a vacuum
coating unit for metallization. The ohmic contact was
made by evaporating Al on the back surface of the substrate, followed by a temperature treatment at 580 C for
3 min in N2 atmosphere. The wafer was cut into four
pieces with a dimension of about 5 mm  5 mm. A piece
of them was immediately inserted into the evaporation
chamber for forming the reference Sn/p-Si Schottky type
photovoltaics. This sample was called S0 (the reference
sample). Before Schottky contact formation, the front surfaces of the other samples with ohmic back contacts were
anodized in 0.1 M KOH electrolyte at a current density
of 1.0 mA/cm2 under constant current condition and at
room temperature. The details of the anodization process
have been presented previously (Saglam et al., 1997;
Temirci et al., 2001). The second sample has been etched
for 30 s with %10 hydrouoric (HF) acid solution after
anodic oxidation process using 0.1 M potassium hydroxide
(KOH) solution, and the sample was named as S30. The
third and fourth samples have also been etched using HF
solution of %10 with the etching periods of 60 and 75 s
after the anodic oxidation process using 0.1 M KOH solution and they have been named as S60 and S75, respectively. All of the anodization process of the samples was
performed at a constant current of 1 mA/cm2 and continued up to 21 V. Anodization and etching processes were
repeated several times. Finally each sample was inserted
into the evaporation chamber and Sn evaporated on the
front surface of them with a thickness of about 80 nm.
Film thickness of the top contact was controlled by the
lm thickness monitoring system in the vacuum coater
unit. First, reference sample was produced without performing anodic oxidation process. The others were produced using anodization and etching process with
various etching period. Thus, we produced Sn/p-Si photovoltaic samples which have various interfacial layers. All
evaporation processes were performed in a vacuum coating
unit at about 105 Torr. The currentvoltage (IV) measurements of the samples were carried out using a Keithley
6487 Picoammeter/Voltage source at room temperature.
Diode measurements were performed in the dark. The
photovoltaic measurements were carried out under an illumination of 100 mW/cm2 and AM1.5, using a solar
simulator.

97

3. Results and discussion

The IV measurements were performed of the samples
at room temperature, in dark and under illumination in
order to nd out diode and photovoltaic characteristics,
respectively. The current data obtained from IV measurements in dark and under illumination have been converted
to the current value per unit area. The IV plots under illumination and in dark were given at the same graph in order
to see clearly the photovoltaic eects of the produced Sn/pSi Schottky type photovoltaics (Figs. 14). As can be seen
from Figs. 14, all of the samples show a rectier behavior
and exhibit a photovoltaic eect under illumination. Photovoltaic eects of the samples reveal themselves especially
at the case of reverse bias.
The IV graphs (Figs. 14) showing a rectier feature
means that they comply with simple thermionic emission
theory (TE). According to the TE, the forward bias current
of a rectier device must be exponential and it can be
expressed as (Ziel, 1968; Sze, 1981; Rhoderick and
Williams, 1988):




qV
qV
I I o exp
1  exp 
1
nkT
kT
where


qUbo
I o AR T 2 exp 
kT

is called saturation current, q is electronic charge, V is

applied voltage, k is the Boltzmanns coecient, T ambient
temperature in Kelvin and was taken as 300 C, A is the
diode area, Ubo is the barrier height at the zero bias and

Fig. 1. Forward and reverse bias currentvoltage characteristics of the Sn/

p-Si (Ref. sample: S0) Schottky type photovoltaics at room temperature in
dark and under illumination.

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A. Ozkartal, C. Temirci / Solar Energy 132 (2016) 96102

Fig. 2. Forward and reverse bias currentvoltage characteristics of the Sn/

p-Si (sample S30) Schottky type photovoltaics at room temperature in
dark and under illumination.

Fig. 4. Forward and reverse bias currentvoltage characteristics of the Sn/

p-Si (sample S75) Schottky type photovoltaics at room temperature in
dark and under illumination.

is determined from the slope of the straight line region of

the forward bias ln IV characteristics through the relation,
n

q dV
kT dln I

In the case of an ideal contact (MS), the value of ideality

factor of a rectier contact must be equal to 1 or at least
very close to 1 (Temirci et al., 2001). But, experimental
results of ideality factor often show a deviation from the
theory. This situation can be originated from the eect of
the bias voltage drop across the interfacial layer. Therefore,
if ideality factor is greater than 1, it can be said that diode
is nonideal. Ideality factor is usually taken into account to
nd out IV relationship of nonideal diode behaviors
(Cheung and Cheung, 1986). The value of barrier height
is calculated from Eq. (2) as
  2
AR T
qUbo kT ln
5
Io
Fig. 3. Forward and reverse bias currentvoltage characteristics of the Sn/
p-Si (sample S60) Schottky type photovoltaics at room temperature in
dark and under illumination.

R* represents Richardsons constant, which is equal to

32 A cm2 K2 for p-Si.
For qV > 3kT , the second term in brackets on the right
side of Eq. (1) is negligible, and the equation can be rewritten as follows:


qV
I I o exp
3
nkT
n is named as ideality factor and it is a measure of
conformity of the diode to pure thermionic emission and

Using Eqs. (4) and (5), the values of ideality factor and
barrier height were obtained from the IV data of the samples, respectively. The highest value of 0.8 eV for the barrier height has been obtained in the S0 sample. The
contacts in the S0 sample have higher barrier height values
than those of the others. Besides this, they have relatively
high ideality factor values. These indicate that there may
be a native oxide layer between tin and silicon interface.
Thus, the contacts of S0 sample have obeyed a metalinterfacial layer-semiconductor (MIS) conguration rather
than a metalsemiconductor (MS) structure. However, the
contacts of S30 sample have smaller values of ideality factor than the others. This indicates that they are close to the
ideal diode in terms of their characteristics. Ideality factor

A. Ozkartal, C. Temirci / Solar Energy 132 (2016) 96102

values of S60 and S75 samples are greater than those of S0

and S30 samples, and barrier height values of S60 and S75
samples are lower than those of the S0 and S30 sample. We
can deduce that etching process shows positive eect when
etching time is 30 s. In addition, when the etching time is
increased (for a period of 60 and 75 s), diode characteristics
are aected negatively from over-etching process. That is,
over-etching process has lead to distortion of the interface
of the contacts of S60 and S75. The ideality factor values of
the produced samples greater than 1 indicates that we must
take into account the series resistance in the calculations.
To check the results obtained from IV data and to determine the series resistance value of the samples, we can rearrange Eq. (1) by considering a voltage drop across the
diode due to series resistance (Cheung and Cheung, 1986),


qV  IRs
I I o exp
6
nkT
where IRs term is the voltage drop across the diode due to
series resistance. We can derive the Cheungs functions
using Eq. (6) as follows (Cheung and Cheung, 1986):
dV
nkT

IRs
dln I
q


nkT
H I V 
IRs
q

H I nUb IRs

99

Fig. 5. Experimental dV/d(ln I) versus I plots of Sn/p-Si rectier contacts

for sample S30.

Eq. (7) is a linear equation and thus it should give a

straight line for the data of the downward curvature region
of the forward bias IV characteristics. So, the slope and yaxis intercept of a plot of dV/d(ln I) versus I will give Rs
and nkT/q, respectively. According to Eq. (9), a plot of
H(I) versus I will also give a straight line and y-axis intercept of the plot will give nUb. The slope of this plot also
provides a second determination of Rs, which can be used
to check the consistency of Cheung and Cheungs
approach. Only two graphs associated with these functions
are given here as Figs. 5 and 6.
Barrier height value for a metal/semiconductor rectier
contact varies with the applied voltage under the forward
bias condition. The potential across the interfacial layer
varies with the bias. This implies that interface charge
might be changed with the bias. Since interface charge
may be changed as a result of the applied voltage, barrier
height may be modied. Therefore, an additional barrier
increase in the forward bias comes from the potential
change across the interfacial layer (Ayyildiz et al., 2001).
As can be seen from Table 1, an eective value of barrier
height (qUb) has been obtained at the range from 0.70 to
0.80 eV for the reference sample (sample S0). Furthermore,
the values of ideality factor of the reference sample (S0) Sn/
p-Si SBDs range from 1.12 to 1.19. For all of the dots of
the sample S30, whose anodic oxide layer formed on p-Si
was removed by etching for 30 s with HF:H2O (1:10) solution (the passivation method), eective values of barrier
height (qUb) have ranged from 0.74 to 0.75 eV. The ideality

Fig. 6. Experimental H(I) versus I plots of Sn/p-Si rectier contacts for

sample S30.

factor values of the dots of this device have ranged from

1.05 to1.08. For the samples S60 and S75, the values of
barrier height (qUb) have ranged from 0.55 to 0.59 eV
and from 0.58 to 0.59 eV, respectively. The ideality factor
values of the same samples range from 1.29 to 1.30 and
from 1.19 to 1.29, respectively. The lowest and the highest
resistance values were determined as 0.17 X and 42.21 X for
the dot 1 of the samples S60 and S0, respectively.
The average values of ideality factor were calculated as
1.16, 1.06, 1.30, 1.24 for the four samples of S0, S30, S60
and S75, respectively. Conversion eciency for each photovoltaic is given in Table 1. These values are understood
to be comparable to those of the literature (Ji and
Anderson, 2005; Soylu and Yakuphanoglu, 2011;
Hussain and Rahman, 2015; Halder et al., 2015). More ecient photovoltaics, of course, could be produced using

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A. Ozkartal, C. Temirci / Solar Energy 132 (2016) 96102

Table 1
Electrical and photovoltaic characteristic values, obtained from IV data for the samples of S0, S30, S60 and S75.
Samples

n (IV)

n (Cheung)

Ub (eV)(IV)

Ub (eV)
(Cheung)

Rs (X)
(dV/d ln I)I

Rs (X)
(H(I)I)

Fill
factor (FF)

Eciency
(%) (g)

S0 (reference)

d1
d2
d3
d4

1.12
1.18
1.16
1.19

1.13
1.20
1.15
1.21

0.80
0.70
0.76
0.76

0.76
0.76
0.76
0.75

27.32
19.51
39.77
35.30

42.21
41.37
19.21
32.88

0.48
0.56
0.60
0.45

0.13
0.10
0.13
0.09

S30 (30 sn etch)

d1
d2
d3
d4

1.08
1.05
1.05
1.06

1.07
1.08
1.08
1.08

0.74
0.74
0.75
0.74

0.64
0.62
0.61
0.60

0.32
0.20
0.18
0.17

0.40
0.32
0.27
0.22

0.62
0.63
0.57
0.63

0.66
0.64
0.68
0.74

S60 (60 sn etch)

d1
d2
d3

1.30
1.29
1.30

1.31
1.32
1.33

0.55
0.62
0.59

0.62
0.60
0.59

0.17
0.35
0.23

0.17
0.38
0.25

0.48
0.58
0.48

0.28
0.33
0.32

S75 (75 sn etch)

d1
d2
d3
d4

1.22
1.25
1.29
1.19

1.26
1.28
1.33
1.23

0.58
0.58
0.58
0.59

0.62
0.62
0.63
0.59

0.30
0.28
0.51
0.29

0.49
0.42
0.76
0.45

0.44
0.40
0.44
0.45

0.16
0.11
0.13
0.13

various techniques (Razykov et al., 2011; Parida et al.,

2015; Da and Xuan, 2015; Xi et al., 2015). However, it is
also very important to disclose experimentally the relationships between diode and photovoltaic parameters. It is
understood from the obtained numerical data and the plotted graphs that the devices of S30 sample have better both
diode and photovoltaic characteristics than the others. So,
we can say that if a sample has a better diode characteristic
it has a better photovoltaic characteristic. For determining
photovoltaic properties of the produced samples, IV measurements were performed by a solar simulator under
AM1.5 and 100 mW/cm2 illumination. The currentvoltage curves under illumination are given in Figs. 710 in
detail. After determining the characteristics such as short
circuit current I sc and open circuit voltage V oc from
Figs. 710, the values of ll factor (FF) and conversion

Fig. 7. The currentvoltage characteristics of the sample S0 at room

temperature under AM1.5, 100 mW/cm2 illumination.

eciency (g) of the samples can be calculated by using

Eqs. (10) and (11), (Fonash, 2010),
FF

V mI m
V oc I sc

10

where V m and I m are the maximum voltage and maximum

current, respectively corresponding to the maximum output power. V oc and I sc are named open circuit voltage
and short circuit current, respectively. FF is the ratio of
the rectangular area formed by the multiplication of V m
and I m to the rectangular area formed by the multiplication
of V oc and I sc . FF must obey to the limitation of FF 6 1, as
based on recognition. A second parameter of a photovoltaic device is the conversion eciency g, and it is given
as follow,

Fig. 8. The currentvoltage characteristics of the sample S30 at room

temperature under AM1.5, 100 mW/cm2 illumination.

A. Ozkartal, C. Temirci / Solar Energy 132 (2016) 96102

Fig. 9. The currentvoltage characteristics of the sample S60 at room

temperature under AM1.5, 100 mW/cm2 illumination.

Fig. 10. The currentvoltage characteristics of the sample S75 at room

temperature under AM1.5, 100 mW/cm2 illumination.

V mI m
P in

11

where P in is the incoming photon power per surface area.

FF and g values of the samples were calculated using
Eqs. (10) and (11) with Figs. 710. Photovoltaic and electrical values of each device were given in Table 1, and mean
values of them are given in Table 2. The Isc notation, given

101

Fig. 11. Mean currentvoltage characteristics of each contact of the

samples of S0, S30, S60 and S75, at room temperature under AM1.5,
100 mW/cm2 illumination.

in Table 2, actually shows the current value per unit area.

As seen from Table 1, the electrical and photovoltaic
parameters have varied from device to device. However,
variations of diodes and photovoltaic parameters for each
device are understood to be proportional to each other. In
addition, it is clear from Table 2 that there is a relationship
between the changes of electrical and photovoltaic parameters. Namely, according to the values of Table 2, it seems
that there is an inverse relationship between the values of
the FF and the n. In addition, it seems that there is also
an inversely proportional relationship between ideality factor and conversion eciency. Moreover, it is clear that
there is an inverse proportion between the values of series
resistance obtained using the Cheungs functions from the
dark IV data and the values of FF. Furthermore, there
is also an inverse proportion between the values of series
resistance and the values of eciency. The relationships
between series resistance and photovoltaic parameters are
consistent with those of the literature (Goetzberger et al.,
1998). Recently, the relationship between some electrical
parameters such as carrier concentration, mobility and
photovoltaic parameters have been studied using a heterojunction structure (Minami et al., 2016). In the present
study, the dependence of photovoltaic parameters (eciency and ll factor) onto ideality factor and series resistance have been examined using Sn/p-Si Schottky
structure. Fig. 11 shows the mean currentvoltage

Table 2
Mean values of the some electrical and photovoltaic characteristics of the Sn/p-Si Schottky type photovoltaics for the samples of S0, S30, S60 and S75.
Sample

Ub (eV)

Isc (A)

Voc (V)

RS (X) (dV/d ln I)I

FF

g (%)

S0 (reference)
S30 (30 sn etch)
S60 (60 sn etch)
S75 (75 sn etch)

1.16
1.06
1.30
1.24

0.76
0.74
0.59
0.58

0.0009
0.0050
0.0021
0.0027

0.23
0.22
0.28
0.11

30.47
0.22
0.25
0.27

0.52
0.61
0.51
0.43

0.11
0.68
0.31
0.13

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A. Ozkartal, C. Temirci / Solar Energy 132 (2016) 96102

characteristics of contacts of each sample under

illumination. The relationship between photovoltaic and
diode parameters of Sn/p-Si Schottky structures are
shown clearly from Fig. 11. We can deduce from Fig. 11
that if the values of ideality factor and series resistance
are higher, the values of ll factor and eciency will be
lower.
4. Conclusion
We have investigated experimentally the relationship
between photovoltaic and diode parameters of four kinds
of Sn/p-Si Schottky type photovoltaic samples using surface treatment by anodic oxidation and chemical etching
method. We found that there is a close relationship
between photovoltaic and diode parameters. In this context, the following results were obtained: The best characteristic value for the diodes and photovoltaics was
obtained with the sample S30, one of the four samples.
Moreover, we observed deterioration in characteristics of
diode and photovoltaic for an etching time of 60 and
75 s. More importantly, it was observed that ll factor
and conversion eciency has an inversely proportional
relationship with ideality factor, as seen from Table 2
and Fig. 11. Similarly, ll factor and conversion eciency
are also inversely proportional to series resistance. We have
not included interface states to this study. We believe that a
thorough investigation of this parameter can more
enlighten the relationships between diode and photovoltaic
characteristics.
Acknowledgement
We would like to thank Yuzuncu Yl University
Scientic Research Management Oce for their funding
support.
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