Electronic conduction properties of Au/C60/p-Si and C60/Au/p-Si sandwich structures: I–V and transducer characteristics

Gold-fullerite [C60]-silicon (p-type) sandwich structures have been fabricated in order to investigate intrinsic cross-sectional and planar electronic conductive properties, in particular the C60/p-Si p–n heterojunction. The turn-on voltage of this p–n heterojunction lies in the range 0.25–0.27 V. The I–V characteristics of the Au/C60/p-Si structure are mostly defined by the bulk specific resistance of the fullerite crystal film itself (∼6×107 Ω cm). I–V curves in the C60/Au/p-Si structure are shown to be ohmic. Au/C60/p-Si sandwiches irradiated with swift (300 MeV) heavy ions, (84Kr14+) to a total fluence ∼1010 ion/cm2 yield structures which are sensitive to ambient air pressure, specifically in the case of a transverse contact configuration, and if one of the contacts is located on the irradiated part of the fullerite film. The sandwich-structure sensitivity to pressure is ∼5×10−6 Pa−1. This exceeds the sensitivity of conventional silicon pressure transducers by almost three orders of magnitude.