A graphene/Si Schottky diode for the highly sensitive detection of protein.

Herein, a graphene/Si-based device was introduced for bovine serum albumin (BSA) sensing. In this study, it is shown that the Schottky junction at the interface of graphene/Si is highly sensitive to BSA under UV light exposure. The reverse bias current of the junction, which is sensitive to UV light, changes under exposure to BSA at different concentrations. By UV light absorption, we showed that the addition of the BSA solution to the junction affected the output characteristic of the fabricated device. Moreover, the output characteristic of the device shows that the device can be considered as a self-powered detector that would reduce the need for batteries. The results obtained in this study would open up a way towards the fabrication of an on-chip biosensor for the sensing of biological agents such as BSA.