article · Small
Self-powered photodetectors represent an important direction for next-generation optoelectronics. By inserting a thin tin monoxide film between a silicon substrate and a zinc oxide film, an aluminium, silicon, tin monoxide, zinc oxide, and indium tin oxide device structure achieves stable and uniform violet light sensing. The added tin monoxide layer creates a built-in electrostatic field that increases the photocurrent by more than 1000 percent. Tested under self-driven conditions with a 405 nanometre excitation laser, the device demonstrates a responsivity of 93 milliamperes per watt, reflecting a 3067 percent enhancement compared to a structure without the tin monoxide layer. It also exhibits a detectivity of 3.1 multiplied by 10 to the power of 10 Jones alongside a rapid response time of approximately two microseconds.
Photodetectors that operate without external power can reduce energy demands in optical sensing and communications. Zinc oxide devices frequently suffer from lower responsivity or slow speeds. Showing that an intermediary tin monoxide layer sharply improves both photocurrent and response speed offers a clear design strategy to advance efficient, self-driven violet sensing hardware.
This work could enable faster, low-power violet light sensors for optoelectronic devices and optical detection systems. The prospective users are manufacturers and developers of specialised optical sensing components. Because the findings reflect early-stage experimental testing of prototype device architectures in a laboratory environment, further development and integration work are necessary before commercial deployment.
AI-generated from the published abstract. Always read the original work before citing.
Abstract Self‐powered photodetectors (PDs) have been recognized as one of the developing trends of next‐generation optoelectronic devices. Herein, it is shown that by introducing a thin layer of SnO film between the Si substrate and the ZnO film, the self‐powered photodetector Al/Si/SnO/ZnO/ITO exhibits a stable and uniform violet sensing ability with high photoresponsivity and fast response. The SnO layer introduces a built‐in electrostatic field to highly enhance the photocurrent by over 1000%. By analyzing energy diagrams of the p‐n junction, the underlying physical mechanism of the self‐powered violet PDs is carefully illustrated. A high photo‐responsivity ( R ) of 93 mA W −1 accompanied by a detectivity ( D* ) of 3.1 × 10 10 Jones are observed under self‐driven conditions, when the device is exposed to 405 nm excitation laser wavelength, with a laser power density of 36 mW cm −2 and at a chopper frequency of 400 Hz. The Si/SnO/ZnO/ITO device shows an enhancement of 3067% in responsivity when compared to the Al/Si/ZnO/ITO. The photodetector holds an ultra‐fast response of ≈ 2 µs, which is among the best self‐powered photodetectors reported in the literature based on ZnO.
This page summarises published work. The authoritative version sits with the publisher.
DOI: 10.1002/smll.202300607
Is something wrong with this record? Report it or request removal.
Discussion
Have you built on this work, tried to replicate it, or seen it applied in practice? Share what you know. Verified researchers and MARATTO™ domain experts can open a discussion, and any member can reply. Contributions are reviewed before they appear.
No discussion yet. Open the first thread.
New to MARATTO™? Create a free account.
