Photovoltaic Properties of Ferroelectric Thin Films

Abstract

This project seeks to evaluate ferroelectric thin film materials in term of their photovoltaic properties. The ferroelectric thin films with strong photovoltaic effects are deposited on silicon substrate; hence it opens a new window for integration towards opto-electronic application.

The effects of film thickness and light intensity on the ferroelectric film were investigated in this project by characterizing the photovoltaic properties, including photocurrent and photovoltage under UV light illumination. The dynamic responses of photocurrent and photovoltage of the ferroelectric film were also studied to understand how fast these materials could respond to illumination. Our experiments showed that both the photovoltage and photocurrent strongly depended on the film thickness, wavelength and intensity of the UV light. The photocurrent was found to increase with the decrease in film thickness. A model was proposed to describe the thickness dependence of the photocurrent.