Current generation in Pd/InP structures in hydrogen medium

The current generation mechanism in Pd/InP Schottky diodes has been studied in the range of 90–300K in vacuum, hydrogen-nitrogen mixture of concentration from 4 to 100 vol.%, and under illuminating of the structures by LED with the wavelength of 0.9 $\mu$m, corresponding to the absorption edge in InP. It was shown that at low temperature ($T$ = 90K) I–V characteristics of the structures in vacuum have rectifying character with the barrier height of 130–150meV. In hydrogen-nitrogen medium the barrier height decreases almost to zero with increasing the temperature to 300K due to palladium work function decreasing. It was demonstrated that under simultaneous impact of illumination ($\lambda$ = 0.9 $\mu$m) and hydrogen-nitrogen mixture there are two opposite directed electron flows in the structures, one of which is related to the LED illumination and the other one to hydrogen absorption in palladium layer.