High performance conical nanostructured GaN-based photodetectors

Here, we report on a new type of conical nanostructured GaN (CNG), and the corresponding high performance GaN-based metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) photodetectors (PDs). Compared with the control planar GaN-based MSM PDs, the photocurrent increases by similar to 600 times at 0.4 V. The responsivity of the CNG-based PDs can reach similar to 2 x 10(4) A W-1 at 4 V, increased by similar to 2000 times compared to the planar GaN-based PDs. The specific detectivity of the CNG-based PDs reaches the maximum at 1 V, similar to 10(14) Jones, which is more than 800 times to that of the planar GaN-based PDs. Our work paves the way to develop high-performance GaN-based PDs using a new nanostructure for detecting weak optical signals.

Automated summary

A new type of conical nanostructured GaN and its high-performance metal-semiconductor-metal photodetectors are reported. Compared with planar detectors, the conical nanostructured detectors exhibit higher photocurrent, responsivity, and detectivity at the same voltage.