Interesting Photodiode Characteristics of Silica Nanoparticles Extracted from Pleurosira laevis Diatom Frustules

Abstract In this work, we measured the I-V characteristics for silica nanoparticles (SNPs) extracted from the Pleurosira laevis diatom and deposited on top of p-type Si(111) wafer. The electric response of SNPs-based photodiode is found to be more sensitive to thermal and optical powers than the fresh frustules-based photodiode by about 3 and 4 times, respectively. Moreover, they exhibit better photodiode parameters, e.g. ideality factor, series resistance, and shunt resistance. This is stimulating to use the extracted SNPs in innovative electronic and optoelectronic applications as an abundant, cheap, and easy-to-process material.