Plasmonic Cu nanoparticles (NP) were successfully deposited on ZnO substrates by atomic layer deposition (ALD) owing to the Volmer-Weber island growth mode. An evolution from Cu NP to continuous Cu films was observed with increasing the number of ALD cycles. Real and imaginary parts of the NP dielectric functions, determined by spectroscopic ellipsometry using an effective medium approach, evidence a localized surface plasmon resonance that can be tuned between the visible and near infrared ranges by controlling the interparticle spacing and size of the NP. The resulting Cu NP/ ZnO device shows an enhanced photo-response under white light illumination with good responsivity values, fast response times and stability under dark/light cycles. The significant photocurrent detected for this device is related with the hot electron generation at the NP surface and injection into the conduction band of the ZnO. The possibility of tuning the plasmon resonance together with the photo-responsivity of the device is promising in many applications related with photo-detection, photonics and photovoltaics.

Transparent nanoscale-film heterojunctions based on Cu2O and ZnO were fabricated by atomic layer deposition and reactive magnetron sputtering. The constitutive layers exhibit high crystalline quality and a local epitaxial relation between Cu2O and ZnO was achieved with [110] Cu2O || [001] ZnO and [001] Cu2O || [010] ZnO as evidenced by high resolution transmission electron microscopy and. Cu2O films show very low resistivity and high mobility values of 9 -150Ω cm and 19 cm 2 / V s, respectively. The Cu2O/ZnO heterojunctions exhibit a non-linear rectifying behavior characteristic of a p-n junction, self-powered photo-response under 1-Sun illumination and an average transmittance of 73% in the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum. These results are promising for all-oxide transparent electronics, photodetection and photovoltaic applications.