Photosensitive Schottky barrier diode behavior of a semiconducting Co(iii)–Na complex with a compartmental Schiff base ligand

The opto-electronic properties of an X-ray characterized, end-to-end azide bridged cobalt(iii)–sodium complex, [(N(3))CoLNa(N(3))](n), have been investigated in detail. The complex is found to be a direct semiconductor material as confirmed by determining the band gap of this complex by experimental as well as theoretical studies. The complex has also been used to construct a photosensitive Schottky device. Optical conductivity, calculated from the DFT study, has been used to analyze how the conductivity of the material changes upon illumination. The electrical conductivity and concomitantly, the photoconductivity of the material increase as a consequence of photon absorption.