Electrical and magnetic properties of Ni-Cu-Si heterojunction prepared by the liquid phase epitaxy technique

Ni-Cu-Si heterojunction was prepared by the liquid phase epitaxy (LPE) technique. Two growth solutions containing Indium (In) with Cu pieces and In with Ni pieces were employed during the fabrication process. The as-formed junction was directly characterized by different techniques including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and thin film X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements. The current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of the Au/Ni/Cu/Si diode were found to be nonlinear, asymmetric, having a good rectification behavior with a very small leakage current of 0.003 μA at a reverse bias voltage of 2.0 V. The value of turn on voltage was located at 0.2 V. The magnetic properties were also evaluated at room temperature with a vibrating sample magnetometer. Systematic study of junction fabrication and characterization of such a heterosystem, comparison of the behavior of flat silicon and nanoporous silicon as substrates are presented and thoroughly discussed.