Improved UV photoresponse of ZnO nanorod arrays by resonant coupling with surface plasmons of Al nanoparticles

Abstract

In this study, localized surface plasmon resonance mediated by aluminium nanoparticles (Al NPs) was employed to enhance the ultraviolet (UV) response of ZnO nanorod array (NRA) photodetectors grown vertically on a Quartz substrate using a simple vapor transport method. The responsivity of the ZnO NRA photodetector decorated with Al NPs was enhanced from 0.12 to 1.59 A W(-1) and the sensitivity and response rate have been improved greatly compared with those of the bare one. The measurement results in the transmittance spectra and time-resolved photoluminescence spectra suggest that the improved photoresponse and the enhanced spontaneous emission of the ZnO NRA photodetector with Al NP decoration are both attributed to resonant coupling between the excitons in ZnO and the localized surface plasmons (LSPs) in the Al NPs. Our results demonstrated that the plasmon-enhanced ZnO NRA photodetector has a great potential for application in building sensors with a fast response and reset time, high sensitivity, and good signal-to-noise ratio for photoelectric sensing.

Surface Plasmon-Enhanced Nano-photodetector for Green Light Detection

“…6b). For the AuNPs@ZnTeNW, the increase in photocurrent should be attributed to LSPRinduced DET, without which the photocurrent should be [26] theoretically lower than that of pure ZnTeNW considering the decrease in photoabsorption.…”

“…They found that the nano-photodetector based on ZnTe:Sb/ Si heterojunction has a responsivity of 1.8×10 3 and photoconductive gain of 4.2×10 3 , respectively. In spite of these efforts, the performance of these ZnTeNW-based green detectors is still limited by low responsivity and quantum efficiency, which is mainly due to the relatively small photon absorption cross section [26]. In view of the light confinement of LSPR effect mentioned above, we herein report a plasmonic green light nano-photodetector.…”

Fractal aluminum Cayley-trees to design plasmonic ultraviolet photodetectors

“…Solar-blind plasmonic deep-UV (DUV) photodetectors with high responsivity have been analyzed and designed as highly promising opto-electronic devices for various purposes such as bio-chemical sensing, missile warning, flame detection, environmental monitoring, and UV astronomy [1][2][3]. Several wide bandgap semiconductors including but not limited to GaN, AlGaN, MgZnO, Ga 2 O 3 , have been used to devise DUV photodetectors [1,4,5].…”

Direct Catalyst‐Free Chemical Vapor Deposition of ZnO Nanowire Array UV Photodetectors with Enhanced Photoresponse Speed

“…[14][15][16][17] For example, by utilizing Schottky contact instead of Ohmic contact in ZnO NW PDs, the rise time could be drastically reduced from hundreds of seconds to a value less than 1 s. [16,17] Plasmonic effect was also proven effective in improving the photoresponse performance of semiconductor devices. Various strategies have been implemented to enhance the response speed of ZnO-based UV PDs.…”