Tunable Schottky diodes fabricated from crossed electrospun SnO2/PEDOT-PSSA nanoribbons

Schottky diodes have been fabricated on doped Si/SiO2 substrates in air, by simply crossing individual electrospun tin oxide (SnO2) and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)/poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT-PSSA) nanoribbons. The conductivity of PEDOT-PSSA was ∼6 S/cm with no observable field effect, while SnO2 exhibited n-doped field effect behavior with a charge mobility of ∼3.1 cm2/V-s. The diodes operate in air or in vacuum, under ambient illumination or in the dark, with low turn-on voltages and device parameters that are tunable via a back gate bias or a UV light source. Their unique design involves a highly localized active region that is completely exposed to the surrounding environment, making them potentially attractive for use as sensors. The standard thermionic emission model of a Schottky junction was applied to analyze the forward bias diode characteristics and was successfully tested as a half wave rectifier.