Improved Self-Powered Photodetection of Ferroelectric PbZr0.52Ti0.48O3 Thin Films via Interfacial Engineering

Ferroelectric materials featured with strong sponta-neous electric polarization have been considered as promising candidates for the fabrication of self-powered photodetectors. However, the random growth orientation of thin films deteriorates the ferroelectric properties, which further limits the performance of self-powered photodetectors based on ferroelectric thin films. In this work, ferroelectric PbZr0.52Ti0.48O3 (PZT) thin films have been prepared using a low-cost sol-gel method, which exhibited a good ultraviolet photodetection ability. Furthermore, a thin (111)-oriented Au interlayer was introduced to facilitate the growth of (100)-oriented PZT, which improved the ferroelectric properties of the as-grown PZT thin films. On this basis, performance-improved ferroelectric PZT-based self-powered photodetectors with the responsivity and detectivity as high as 0.26 A/W and 2.23 x 1012 Jones, respectively, have been obtained, which are higher than most of the state-of-the-art similar devices reported before. The results shown in this work will provide a facile way to fabricate high performance self-powered photodetectors based on ferroelectric thin films.

Automated summary

This study prepared ferroelectric PZT thin films using a low-cost sol-gel method and introduced an Au interlayer to improve its ferroelectric properties. Based on this structure, high-performance self-powered photodetectors were obtained, with performance surpassing most of the previously reported similar devices.