Highly transparent oxide-based ultraviolet photodetectors for flexible electronics

Flexible ultraviolet (UV) photodetectors have attracted great interests for applications in portable and wearable optoelectronic systems. In this work, highly visible-transparent and flexible UV photodetectors based on nanocrystalline zinc oxide (ZnO) films were developed on polyimide substrates by utilizing radio frequency magnetron sputtering and shadow mask deposition. The crystallinity and surface morphology of the ZnO films have been optimized at the substrate temperature of 200 degrees C. The flexible photodetector exhibited an average transmittance over 85% in the visible spectral range and a large photo-to-dark current ratio of 1.2 x 10(4) under 360 nm UV illumination. Moreover, the detector demonstrated enhanced photoresponse performance with the rise and decay time of 3.24 s and 108.7 ms, respectively. The highest detectivity of the device reached 2.7 x 10(11) cm Hz(1/2)/W at 5 V bias voltage under an UV illumination intensity of 0.38 mW/cm(2). The realization of transparent oxide films-based UV photodetectors on flexible substrates provides potential to develop high-performance and large-scale wearable optoelectronic devices.

Automated summary

In this work, flexible ultraviolet (UV) photodetectors based on nanocrystalline zinc oxide (ZnO) films were successfully developed on polyimide substrates using radio frequency magnetron sputtering and shadow mask deposition. The devices exhibited high visible transparency, large photo-to-dark current ratio, and enhanced photoresponse performance. The realization of transparent oxide film-based UV photodetectors on flexible substrates has potential for developing high-performance and large-scale wearable optoelectronic devices.