• Temperature-dependent dark I–V characteristics (298–398 K) of a VTE-grown p-CdTe/n-Si heterojunction were systematically analyzed. • A clear transition from trap-controlled SCLC at low temperatures to thermionic-emission-assisted transport at higher temperatures was identified. • The barrier height increased from 0.80 to 0.93 eV (Cheung) and from 0.92 to 1.02 eV (Norde) with temperature. • Gaussian barrier inhomogeneity analysis yielded a standard deviation of σ 0 ≈ 0.177 eV, confirming spatial barrier fluctuations at the CdTe/Si interface. • Opposite temperature dependence of ideality factor and barrier height provided strong evidence of interfacial barrier inhomogeneity. A temperature-dependent dark I–V investigation of a representative VTE-grown p-CdTe/n-Si heterojunction was performed over the 298–398 K range to examine the dominant charge-transport mechanisms and interfacial non-ideality. The device exhibits a transition from trap-influenced space-charge-limited conduction at lower temperatures to thermionic-emission–assisted transport at elevated temperatures. The ideality factor decreases from 5.52 to 2.56 with increasing temperature, while the effective barrier height extracted from Cheung’s and Norde’s methods increases from 0.80 to 0.926 eV and from 0.918 to 1.019 eV, respectively. Analysis of the temperature-dependent Richardson behaviour using a Gaussian distribution framework yields a standard deviation of σ 0 ≈ 0.177 eV, indicating spatial fluctuations of the interfacial potential barrier. The temperature dependence of the series resistance (7.16 × 10 4 Ω to 7.68 × 10 3 Ω) further reflects enhanced thermally activated carrier injection. These results provide detailed insight into the temperature-dependent transport behaviour of the investigated VTE-grown CdTe/Si heterostructure. Further statistical and structural investigations would be beneficial to assess reproducibility and interface uniformity.
Sapaev et al. (Sun,) studied this question.