The current–voltage characteristics of heterostructures formed by MEH-PPV spin-coated on n-type GaAs and n-type porous GaAs

P–N heterostructures are formed by depositing the poly(2-methoxy-5-(2′-ethyl-hexyloxy)-1,4-phenylene-vinylene) MEH-PPV on n-type GaAs(100) substrate and on n-type porous GaAs. The elaborated heterostructures are studied by current–voltage measurements. Thermionic emission is used to model the heterostructures behaviors and to extract parameters as ideality factor and zero bias barrier high. Such model also appears to be useful as a new approach for calculating hole concentration in MEH-PPV deposited on n-type GaAs (Na = 2.2 × 1017 cm− 3). The zero bias barrier height in both heterostructures were found to be close to the ionization energy difference of isolated MEH-PPV and n-type GaAs and the ideality factor values are found to be high. Such high values are suggested to be due to the existence of high density of trap. This is preliminary evidenced by calculating the trap density using space charge limited conductivity (SCLC) characterized by an exponential distribution of trapping levels in both heterostructures.