Ultraviolet (UV) radiation has a variety of impacts including the health of humans, the production of crops, and the lifetime of buildings. Based on the photovoltaic effect, self-powered UV photodetectors can measure and monitor UV radiation without any power consumption. However, the current low photoelectric performance of these detectors has hindered their practical use. In our study, a super-high-performance self-powered UV photodetector based on a GaN/Sn:Ga 2 O 3 pn junction was generated by depositing a Sn-doped n-type Ga 2 O 3 thin film onto a p-type GaN thick film. The responsivity at 254 nm reached up to 3.05 A/W without a power supply and had a high UV/visible rejection ratio of R 254 nm /R 400 nm = 5.9 × 10 3 and an ideal detectivity at 1.69 × 10 13 cm•Hz 1/2 •W −1 , which is well beyond the level of previous self-powered UV photodetectors. Moreover, our device also has a low dark current (1.8 × 10 −11 A), a high I photo /I dark ratio (∼10 4 ), and a fast photoresponse time of 18 ms without bias. These outstanding performance results are attributed to the rapid separation of photogenerated electron−hole pairs driven by a high built-in electric field in the interface depletion region of the GaN/ Sn:Ga 2 O 3 pn junction. Our results provide an improved and easy route to constructing high-performance self-powered UV photodetectors that can potentially replace traditional high-energy-consuming UV detection systems. KEYWORDS: self-powered, ultraviolet photodetector, GaN/Sn:Ga 2 O 3 pn junction, superhigh photoresponsivity, 3.05 A/W, potential barrier U ltraviolet radiation has a significant impact on humankind. Some benefits are UV's ability to facilitate the synthesis of vitamin D, kill germs, and treat or prevent rickets when our skin is exposed to moderate UV light. 1 However, it can cause cataracts and skin cancer and accelerate the aging process due to an excessive amount of UV radiation. 1,2 Additionally, UV radiation strongly affects the production of crops and the lifetime of buildings. Fortunately, UV radiation can be measured and monitored using semiconductor UV photodetectors based on Einstein's photoelectric effect, which transforms UV radiation to measurable electronic signals. After decades of steady development, modern UV photodetectors, with high performances in photoresponsivity, signal-to-noise ratios, stability, and speed, have gained interest recently for their applications in environmental monitoring, advanced communications, air purification, leak detection, space research, etc. 3−13 Unfortunately, to acquire reasonable detectivity, an external electric field is applied to photodetectors to separate the photogenerated electron−hole pairs. 5−13 Therefore, external power sources are generally necessary. This makes photodetectors overall uneconomical and complex. On the contrary, self-powered photodetectors can help solve the energy issues and have attracted significant attention. 14−19 Compared to traditional photodetectors, self-powered structures, based on the photovoltaic effect su...

We report the observation of enhanced red emission at 613 nm originating from 5 D 0 f 7 F 2 transition of Eu 3+ -doped CaMoO 4 with Bi 3+ as an additive, under excitation either into the 5 L 6 state with 395 nm or the 5 D 2 state with 465 nm. The luminescence properties as a function of Bi 3+ and Eu 3+ concentrations are studied. Strongly enhanced red emission of Eu 3+ is obtained by adding Bi 3+ instead of increasing the Eu 3+ concentration. For a fixed Eu 3+ concentration, there is an optimal Bi 3+ concentration, at which the maximum luminescence intensity is achieved. The red emission of CaMoO 4 :0.05Eu 3+ is enhanced by a factor of 3 as 0.2 Bi 3+ is co-doped into the system, stronger than that of commercial Y 2 O 2 S:Eu 3+ and Y 2 O 3 :Eu 3+ phosphors. Lifetime and diffuse reflection spectra measurements indicate that the red emission enhancement is due to the enhanced transition probabilities from the ground state to 5 L 6 and 5 D 2 states of Eu 3+ in the distorted crystal field in which it is considered that more odd-rank crystal field components are induced by crystal structural distortion and symmetry decreasing with the addition of Bi 3+ , leading to more opposite parity components, for example, 4f 5 5d states, mixed into the 4f 6 transitional levels of Eu 3+ . The energy transfer from Bi 3+ to Eu 3+ also occurs and is discussed. The present material is a promising red-emitting phosphor for white light diodes with near-UV/blue GaN-based chips.

Most of the photodetectors can measure all of the light illumination with a wavelength below the absorption edge of the detector materials, while they cannot distinguish the different waveband. Herein, a self-powered spectrum-distinguishable photoelectrochemical (PEC) type photodetector based on an α-Ga2O3 nanorod array (NA)/Cu2O microsphere (MS) p–n junction was reported. Under the combined action of the built-in electric field of the p–n junction and the semiconductor/electrolyte junction, the photodetector exhibits an opposite direction of the photocurrent to the illumination of 254 and 365 nm UV light under the applied bias of 0 V, which can be used to distinguish the different wavelengths of light. The photodetector shows a responsivity of 0.42 mA/W under 254 nm UV light and 0.57 mA/W upon 365 nm, respectively. Our results provide an idea for distinguishing the different illumination wavebands through a photodetector constructed by the heterojunction with two different band gap materials.

Coherent phonon (CP) dynamics and electronic relaxation in single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) are investigated in femtosecond pump-probe experiments. Using a sensitive multichannel lock-in amplifier, chiralityspecific electronic relaxation and vibrational dynamics are resolved in SWNT ensembles composed of several chiral systems without the need for selective isolation of the different species by purification. The dynamics of vibrational wave packets are studied based on oscillatory changes in the absorbance of the systems. Modulations corresponding to the radial breathing mode (RBM), observed in the time traces of the absorbance change for the four chiral systems (6,4), (6,5), (7,5), and (8,3), have been analyzed in detail. The vibrational modes of the CP spectra are identified from the two-dimensional distribution of probe photon energy versus Fourier frequency. Resonance conditions and mode frequencies lead to definite chirality assignments. Coherent RBM phonon generation is analyzed using the probe photon energy-dependent amplitude profiles as a result of the spectral shift induced by wave-packet motion on the potential surface. The present study clarifies that the observed probe photon energy dependence is due to both the imaginary and real parts of the third-order susceptibility, corresponding to Raman (and Raman-like) gain and loss processes and to molecular phase modulation, respectively. The imaginary part is the dominant contribution to the modulation in the difference absorbance. It shows probe photon energy dependence in the form of a difference in absorbed photon energy between the spectra that are shifted and unshifted with vibrational frequency. The size of the Huang-Rhys factors from the difference fitting to the (6,4), (6,5), and (8,3) systems are 0.26, 0.32, and 0.75, respectively. The trend of the factors originates in the stiffness differences of the SWNT structures. The real part depends on the derivative of the absorbed photon energy spectrum due to cross-phase modulation, resulting from the change in refractive index during the molecular vibrations. This process induces a probe spectral change, as evidenced by first-derivative fitting using a small number of data points of probe photon energies. The effective nonlinear refractive index for each chiral system is determined to range from 0.2 to 3.1 × 10 −17 cm 2 /W.