High performance ZnO quantum dot (QD)/ magnetron sputtered ZnO homojunction ultraviolet photodetectors

The performance of photodetectors can be simultaneously determined by the photoinduced carrier generation and transportation, and thereby a huge challenge still remains for the fabrication of ultra-sensitive ZnO UV due to the irreconcilable contradiction between high crystallinity and additional adsorption-desorption sites. Here, we demonstrate ZnO quantum dot (QD) / magnetron sputtered ZnO homojunction photodetectors with an excellent performance by systematically varying the thickness ratios between two ZnO layers. With the well-balanced ratio, ZnO QDs offers extra adsorption-desorption sites owing to the increased surface defects, and accelerated carrier transportation is concurrently achieved with the highly crystallized magnetron sputtered ZnO layers. As a consequence, the responsivity and external quantum efficiency of the ZnO homojunction photodetector fabricated at 250 & DEG;C radically increased to 551 mA/W and 195.4% under 350 nm light illumination (8.58 mW cm(-2)) at the bias of 10 V. Depending on the annealing temperature, the responsivity of the ZnO homojunction photodetector is further increased to 1.3 A/W at 450 & DEG;C even with an identical ratio on account of the improved crystallinity, which paves the path to overcome the hindrance for the ultra-sensitive UV photodetection.

Automated summary

In this study, ZnO quantum dot (QD) / magnetron sputtered ZnO homojunction photodetectors with excellent performance were fabricated by systematically varying the thickness ratios between two ZnO layers. The balanced ratio resulted in extra adsorption-desorption sites from the ZnO QDs and accelerated carrier transportation from the highly crystallized magnetron sputtered ZnO layers. As a result, the fabricated ZnO homojunction photodetector showed significantly increased responsivity and external quantum efficiency, paving the way for ultra-sensitive UV photodetection.