Electrical characterisation of MIS photoanodes annealed under different conditions for solar fuel generation

The impact of post-deposition annealing of silicon based metal-insulator-semiconductor structures with SiO
₂
/TiO
₂
dielectric layers is inspected by means of electrical characterisation. It is shown that annealing at 400
^°
C in the forming gas results into the photovoltaic response of MIS structure. Such behaviour is facilitated by the tunnelling of holes through SiO
₂
. Annealing at higher temperature or in the air ambient exhibit negligible photovoltaic response due to grown of additional SiO
₂
at the interface and/or low interface quality.