ZnO Nanowire UV Photodetectors with High Internal Gain

ZnO nanowire (NW) visible-blind UV photodetectors with internal photoconductive gain as high as G approximately 108 have been fabricated and characterized. The photoconduction mechanism in these devices has been elucidated by means of time-resolved measurements spanning a wide temporal domain, from 10-9 to 102 s, revealing the coexistence of fast (tau approximately 20 ns) and slow (tau approximately 10 s) components of the carrier relaxation dynamics. The extremely high photoconductive gain is attributed to the presence of oxygen-related hole-trap states at the NW surface, which prevents charge-carrier recombination and prolongs the photocarrier lifetime, as evidenced by the sensitivity of the photocurrrent to…