Electronic Characterization of Au/DNA/ITO Metal-Semiconductor-Metal Diode and Its Application as a Radiation Sensor

Abstract

Deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA molecules expressed as double-stranded (DSS) negatively charged polymer plays a significant role in electronic states of metal/silicon semiconductor structures. Electrical parameters of an Au/DNA/ITO device prepared using self-assembly method was studied by using current–voltage (I-V) characteristic measurements under alpha bombardment at room temperature. The results were analyzed using conventional thermionic emission model, Cheung and Cheung’s method and Norde’s technique to estimate the barrier height, ideality factor, series resistance and Richardson constant of the Au/DNA/ITO structure. Besides demonstrating a strongly rectifying (diode) characteristic, it was also observed that orderly fluctuations occur in various electrical parameters of the Schottky structure. Increasing alpha radiation effectively influences the series resistance, while the barrier height, ideality factor and interface state density parameters respond linearly. Barrier height determined from I–V measurements were calculated at 0.7284 eV for non-radiated, increasing to about 0.7883 eV in 0.036 Gy showing an increase for all doses. We also demonstrate the hypersensitivity phenomena effect by studying the relationship between the series resistance for the three methods, the ideality factor and low-dose radiation. Based on the results, sensitive alpha particle detectors can be realized using Au/DNA/ITO Schottky junction sensor.

Measuring the Electronic Properties of DNA-Specific Schottky Diodes Towards Detecting and Identifying Basidiomycetes DNA

“…It is a known fact that metal-semiconductive junctions constitute a Schottky junction (Schottky diode), which imparts a rectifying effect on a current-voltage (I-V) profile as observed with a conventional p-n junction 10 . The same was observed with a DNA-metal (semiconductor-metal) junction, which actually constitutes a Schottky diode, and has been published and studied in numerous research papers 11 12 13 14 15 16 . Using conventional analysis technique, various electronic parameters such as ideality factor, barrier height and series resistance can be calculated from the I-V profiles 17 .…”

Humidity influenced capacitance and resistance of an Al/DNA/Al Schottky diode irradiated by alpha particles

“…It is understood that tracks are formed upon bombardment of alpha particles. These tracks involve an increase in the number of charges due to the linear energy transfer (LET) from the alpha particle 34 45 46 . As a result of a large number of material excitation by these particles along its path, an increase in the number of charges can be expected.…”

Covalent Hyperbranched Polymer Self-Assemblies of Three-Way Junction DNA for Single-Molecule Devices

“…Previous studies have reported on Schottky barriers of DNA/metal structures prepared by simple casting of aqueous DNA solutions. While some reported properties of a metal–semiconductor junction, − metal–insulator junctions have also been reported . Here, the HBP-SAs were embedded in commercially available Pt-IDA devices, and the Pt/DNA/Pt structures were characterized with two-terminal mode I – V measurements.…”

“…According to Chan et al, Au/DNA/ITO devices exhibited a similar ϕ b = 0.796 eV and n = 15.0 when the DNA extracts from Mimosa pudica were used . Al-Ta’ii et al prepared Au/DNA/ITO devices using mushroom DNA extracts and reported a ϕ b = 0.6679 eV and n = 8.8803 . Furthermore, Periasamy et al examined seven edible mushroom DNAs and found that their electronic parameters were significantly different from each other; they claimed that the finding was useful for identifying DNAs .…”