Reply to Comment on Photovoltaic Action in Polyaniline/n-GaN Schottky Diodes

[Appl. Phys. Express 2 (2009) 092201]

Nobuyuki Matsuki

and Masatomo Sumiya

National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan
Received June 23, 2011; accepted January 3, 2012; published online January 26, 2012
W
e thank You and Lin for providing valuable
comments on our previous article. In particular,
they have mentioned our discussion from line
7 to 10 in the left column on page 092201-3 of ref. 1. On the
basis of their simulation results, they have suggested that
the value of the open-circuit voltage (V
OC
) is lower than the
theoretical value because of the low shunt resistance (R
sh
).
2)
In response to the comment, we have reconsidered our
previous discussion from dierent viewpoints, taking into
account the suggestion in the comment, a similar study
conducted previously,
3)
and the simulation we performed for
composing this reply. As a result, we have concluded that
the sentence should be revised as follows: the obtained V
OC
is less than the theoretical value by 0.06 V; this result can be
attributed to low R
sh
(43 k).
Here, we describe the reasons for the revision mentioned
above. You and Lin have reported the theoretical current
densityvoltage (JV) characteristics calculated using the
parameters of sample A in Table I of ref. 1. The results
shown in Figs. 1 and 2 in their comment clearly show that
V
OC
is insensitive to variation in the series resistance (R
s
)
2)
but sensitive to variations in R
sh
. A similar conclusion is also
deduced analytically from the equation of the well-known
one-diode model including R
s
and R
sh
,
3)
in which V
OC
is
calculated by assuming J 0 and V V
OC
. By this
assumption, the equation can be modied such that it is
free of R
s
.
In addition to reconsidering our discussion for the reasons
mentioned above, we also performed simulations of how R
sh
and R
s
aect V
OC
by using the one-diode model and
experimental data. Figure 1 shows the experimental (open
circles) and simulated (solid lines) JV characteristics
of sample A from ref. 1. The best-t line shows good
agreement with the experimental data. From the tting, it is
estimated that R
s
0:95 k and R
sh
43 k. For com-
parison, the simulated JV characteristics for dierent R
s
and R
sh
are also shown in Figs. 1(a) and 1(b), respectively.
The results lead to a conclusion similar to that in the
comment, i.e., that V
OC
is lower than the theoretical value
because of the reduction in R
sh
. We have investigated
the dependence of V
OC
on R
sh
in further detail. Figure 2
shows V
OC
as a function of R
sh
. The closed circle in Fig. 2
represents R
sh
, which is determined by tting to experi-
mental JV characteristics shown in Fig. 1 (R
sh
43 k).
The simulation results demonstrate that at R
sh
< 10
4
, V
OC
decreases rapidly with decreasing R
sh
, whereas at R
sh
>
10
5
, the change in V
OC
with changing R
sh
is relatively
small. Note that V
OC
shows saturation at 0.70 V in the higher
R
sh
region. The saturated V
OC
value is almost equal to the
theoretical V
OC
value, which is discussed in ref. 1.
In summary, we have revised our discussion from line
7 to 10 in the left column of page 092201-3 of ref. 1. Our
revision is in accordance with the comment made by You
and Lin
2)
and is based on our reconsideration described
above.
1) N. Matsuki, Y. Irokawa, T. Matsui, M. Kondo, and M. Sumiya: Appl. Phys.
Express 2 (2009) 092201.
2) C.-F. You and Y.-J. Lin: Appl. Phys. Express 5 (2012) 029101.
3) M. B. Prince: J. Appl. Phys. 26 (1955) 534.
(a) (b)
0.0
0.00
0.05
0.10
0.15
0.20
Voltage (V)
C
u
r
r
e
n
t

d
e
n
s
i
t
y

(
m
A
/
c
m
2
)
Exp.
Fit-line
R
s
= 0 k
R
s
=
3.0 k
0.0
0.00
0.05
0.10
0.15
0.20
Voltage (V)
C
u
r
r
e
n
t

d
e
n
s
i
t
y

(
m
A
/
c
m
2
)
Exp.
Fit-line
R
sh
= 10 k
R
sh
= 100 k
R
s
-dependence R
sh
-dependence
R
s
=
0.95 k
R
sh
=
43 k
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
Fig. 1. Experimental and simulated JV characteristics for (a) R
s
0,
0.95, and 3.0 k, (b) R
sh
10, 43, and 100 k.
10
0
10
1
10
2
10
3
10
4
10
5
10
6
10
7
10
8
10
9
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
R
sh
()
V
O
C

(
V
)
Fig. 2. V
OC
simulated as a function of R
sh
. The closed circle in the
viewgraph represents R
sh
determined by tting to the experimental JV
characteristics shown in Fig. 1 (R
sh
43 k).

Present address: Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Faculty

of Engineering, Gifu University, Gifu 501-1193, Japan.
Applied Physics Express 5 (2012) 029102
029102-1 # 2012 The Japan Society of Applied Physics
DOI: 10.1143/APEX.5.029102