Lateral photovoltaic effect in the Ni-SiO₂-Si structure with bias

We designed a clamping device to study lateral photovoltaic effect (LPE) in Ni-SiO₂-Si structure with bias due to the appropriate barrier height. The LPE has a prominent sensitivity and linearity with 532 nm wavelength laser. The transient response time is 450 µs and the relaxation time is 2 250 µs in the Ni-SiO₂-Si structure without bias. The LPE sensitivity has a significant improvement with bias. The transient response time is 6 µs and the relaxion time is 47 µs with −7 V bias, not only improving the LPE sensitivity, but also increasing the response speed with bias. The research shows that the Schottky barrier structure can improve the sensitivity and linearity of LPE with bias effectively, and thus it can be used in position sensitive sensors.