High-performance GaN metal-insulator-semiconductor ultraviolet photodetectors using gallium oxide as gate layer

High-Performance Ultraviolet Photodetectors Based on Nanoporous GaN with a Ga2O3 Single-Crystal Layer

The utilization of a nanoporous (NP) GaN fabricated by electrochemical etching has been demonstrated to be effective in the fabrication of a high-performance ultraviolet (UV) photodetector (PD). However, the NP-GaN PD typically exhibits a low light-dark current ratio and slow light response speed. In this study, we present three types of UV PDs based on an unetched GaN, NP-GaN distributed Bragg reflector (DBR), and NP-GaN-DBR with a Ga2O3 single-crystal film (Ga2O3/NP-GaN-DBR). The unetched GaN PD does not exhibit a significant photoresponse. Compared to the NP-GaN-DBR PD device, the Ga2O3/NP-GaN-DBR PD demonstrates a larger light-dark current ratio (6.14 × 103) and higher specific detectivity (8.9 × 1010 Jones) under 365 nm at 5 V bias due to its lower dark current (3.0 × 10-10 A). This reduction in the dark current can be attributed to the insertion of the insulating Ga2O3 between the metal and the NP-GaN-DBR, which provides a thicker barrier thickness and higher barrier height. Additionally, the Ga2O3/NP-GaN-DBR PD device exhibits shorter rise/decay times (0.33/0.23 s) than the NP-GaN-DBR PD, indicating that the growth of a Ga2O3 layer on the DBR effectively reduces the trap density within the NP-GaN DBR structure. Although the device with a Ga2O3 layer presents low photoresponsivity (0.1 A/W), it should be feasible to use Ga2O3 as a dielectric layer based on the above-mentioned reasons.

Printing Polymeric Convex Lenses to Boost the Sensitivity of a Graphene-Based UV Sensor

Ultraviolet (UV) is widely used in daily life as well as in industrial manufacturing. In this study, a single-step postprocess to improve the sensitivity of a graphene-based UV sensor is studied. We leverage the advantage of electric-field-assisted on-demand printing, which is simply applicable for mounting functional polymers onto various structures. Here, the facile printing process creates optical plano-convex geometry by accelerating and colliding a highly viscous droplet on a micropatterned graphene channel. The printed transparent lens refracts UV rays. The concentrated UV photon energy from a wide field of view enhances the photodesorption of electron-hole pairs between the lens and the graphene sensor channel, which is coupled with a large change in resistance. As a result, the one-step post-treatment has about a 4× higher sensitivity compared to bare sensors without the lenses. We verify the applicability of printing and the boosting mechanism by variation of lens dimensions, a series of UV exposure tests, and optical simulation. Moreover, the method contributes to UV sensing in acute angle or low irradiation. In addition, the catalytic lens provides about a 9× higher recovery rate, where water molecules inside the PEI lens deliver fast reassembly of the electron-hole pairs. The presented method with an ultimately simple fabrication step is expected to be applied to academic research and prototyping, including optoelectronic sensors, energy devices, and advanced manufacturing processes.

Controlled Transformation of Liquid Metal Microspheres in Aqueous Solution Triggered by Growth of GaOOH

Liquid metals (LMs) are playing an increasingly important role in the fields of flexible devices, electronics, and thermal management due to their low melting point and excellent thermal and electrical conductivity, and the transformation of LMs in deionized water has recently received much attention. In this paper, we investigate the transformation process of EGaIn microspheres in deionized water and propose a two-step process of microspherical transformation, whereby the microspheres are first deformed into a spindle shape and then into lamellar nanorods. It is also shown that the growth of GaOOH crystals drives the transformation. Based on this result, EGaIn microspheres with controllable transformation could be prepared, such as spindle or lamellar rod shapes, extending the application area of LMs.

Engineered tunneling layer with enhanced impact ionization for detection improvement in graphene/silicon heterojunction photodetectors

Here, an engineered tunneling layer enhanced photocurrent multiplication through the impact ionization effect was proposed and experimentally demonstrated on the graphene/silicon heterojunction photodetectors. With considering the suitable band structure of the insulation material and their special defect states, an atomic layer deposition (ALD) prepared wide-bandgap insulating (WBI) layer of AlN was introduced into the interface of graphene/silicon heterojunction. The promoted tunneling process from this designed structure demonstrated that can effectively help the impact ionization with photogain not only for the regular minority carriers from silicon, but also for the novel hot carries from graphene. As a result, significantly enhanced photocurrent as well as simultaneously decreased dark current about one order were accomplished in this graphene/insulation/silicon (GIS) heterojunction devices with the optimized AlN thickness of ~15 nm compared to the conventional graphene/silicon (GS) devices. Specifically, at the reverse bias of -10 V, a 3.96-A W^-1 responsivity with the photogain of ~5.8 for the peak response under 850-nm light illumination, and a 1.03-A W^-1 responsivity with ∼3.5 photogain under the 365 nm ultraviolet (UV) illumination were realized, which are even remarkably higher than those in GIS devices with either Al₂O₃ or the commonly employed SiO₂ insulation layers. This work demonstrates a universal strategy to fabricate broadband, low-cost and high-performance photo-detecting devices towards the graphene-silicon optoelectronic integration.

High-performance nanoporous-GaN metal-insulator-semiconductor ultraviolet photodetectors with a thermal oxidized β-Ga2O3 layer

We report on the high-performance nanoporous (NP) GaN-based metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) ultraviolet (UV) photodetectors (PDs) with a thermal oxidized β-Ga₂O₃insulating layer. The devices show a high responsivity of 4.5×10⁵  A/W and maximum external quantum efficiency of 1.55×10⁸% at 360 nm under a 10 V applied bias, which are attributed to the trap-assisted tunneling induced internal gain mechanism. Correspondingly, a specific detectivity of 8.27×10¹⁵ Jones and excellent optical switching repeatability are also observed in our fabricated PDs. The NP-GaN/β-Ga₂O₃ MIS UV PD may act as an excellent candidate for the application in UV photodetection due to the high performance and simple fabrication process.

Giant UV Photoresponse of GaN-Based Photodetectors by Surface Modification Using Phenol-Functionalized Porphyrin Organic Molecules

Organic molecular monolayers (MoLs) have been used for improving the performance of various electronic device structures. In this work, the concept of organic molecular surface modification is applied for improving the performance of GaN-based metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) ultraviolet (UV) photodetectors (PDs). Organic molecules of phenol-functionalized metallated porphyrin (hydroxyl-phenyl-zinc-tetra-phenyl-porphyrin (Zn-TPPOH)) were adsorbed on GaN, and Ni/Zn-TPPOH/GaN/Zn-TPPOH/Ni PD structures were fabricated. This process was beneficial in two ways: first, the reverse-bias dark current was reduced by 1000 times, and second, the photocurrent was enhanced by ∼100 times, in comparison to the dark and photocurrent values obtained for Ni/GaN/Ni MSM PDs, at high voltages of ±10 V. The responsivity of the devices was increased from 0.22 to 4.14 kA/W at 5 μW/cm² optical power density at -10 V bias and at other voltages also. In addition to this, other PD parameters such as photo-to-dark current ratio and UV-to-visible rejection ratio were also enhanced. The spectral selectivity of the PDs was improved, which means that the molecularly modified devices became more responsive to UV spectral region and less responsive to visible spectral region, in comparison to bare GaN-based devices. Photoluminescence measurements, power-dependent photocurrent characteristics, and time-resolved photocurrent measurements revealed that the MoL was passivating the defect-related states on GaN. In addition, Kelvin probe force microscopy showed that the MoL was also playing with the surface charge (due to surface states) on GaN, leading to increased Schottky barrier height in dark conditions. Resultant to both these phenomena, the reverse-bias dark current was reduced for metal/MoL/GaN/MoL/metal PD structures. Further, the unusual photoconductive gain in the molecularly modified devices has been attributed to Schottky barrier lowering for UV-illuminated conditions, leading to enhanced photocurrent.

Graphene/h-BN/ZnO van der Waals tunneling heterostructure based ultraviolet photodetector

We report a novel ultraviolet photodetector based on graphene/h-BN/ZnO van der Waals heterostructure. Graphene/ZnO heterostructure shows poor rectification behavior and almost no photoresponse. In comparison, graphene/h-BN/ZnO structure shows improved electrical rectified behavior and surprising high UV photoresponse (1350AW(-1)), which is two or three orders magnitude larger than reported GaN UV photodetector (0.2~20AW(-1)). Such high photoresponse mainly originates from the introduction of ultrathin two-dimensional (2D) insulating h-BN layer, which behaves as the tunneling layer for holes produced in ZnO and the blocking layer for holes in graphene. The graphene/h-BN/ZnO heterostructure should be a novel and representative 2D heterostructure for improving the performance of 2D materials/Semiconductor heterostructure based optoelectronic devices.

Dual detection of ultraviolet and visible lights using a DNA-CTMA/GaN photodiode with electrically different polarity

We demonstrated the dual-detectable DNA-CTMA/n-GaN photodiode (DG-PD) for ultraviolet and visible lights. Halogen and UV lamps are employed to recognize the visible and UV wavelength, respectively. The DG-PD under dark condition has a negative-bias shift of current-voltage (I-V) curves by 0.78 V compared to reference diode without DNA. However, the I-V curves move towards positive bias side by 0.75 V and 1.02 V for the halogen- and UV-exposed photodiode, respectively. These cause electrically different polarity and amount for halogen- and UV-induced photocurrents, indicating that the DNA-CTMA on n-GaN is quite effective for recognizing visible and UV lights as a dual-detectable photodiode. The formation and charge transport mechanisms are also discussed.

High performance mechanisms of near-infrared photodetectors with microcrystalline SiGe films deposited using laser-assisted plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition system

The SiH(4) and GeH(4) reactant gases used for depositing microcrystalline SiGe films could be simultaneously decomposed when acted cooperatively on the plasma and the assistant CO(2) laser in the laser-assisted plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition system. The carrier mobility of the 80 W laser-assisted SiGe films was significantly increased to 66.8 cm(2)/V-s compared with 2.22 cm(2)/V-s of the non-laser-assisted SiGe films. The performances of the resulting p-Si/i-SiGe/n-Si near-infrared photodetectors were improved due to the high quality and high carrier mobility of the laser-assisted SiGe films. The maximum photoresponsivity and the maximum quantum efficiency of the photodetectors with 80 W laser-assisted SiGe films were respectively improved to 0.47 A/W and 68.5% in comparison with 0.31 A/W and 46.5% of the photodetectors with non-laser-assisted SiGe films.

Nanoscale avalanche photodiode with self-quenching and ultrahigh ultraviolet/visible rejection ratio

A 4H-SiC based separate-absorption-multiplication (SAM) avalanche photodiode with a nanoscale multiplication region and a bulk absorption region is proposed and its optoelectronic performance is modeled. The results show that the avalanche breakdown voltage of the device is found to be dependent on the illumination condition. This is attributed to the existence of an illumination-dependent hole potential well in the upper center of the absorption region. Based on the illumination-dependence of avalanche breakdown voltage, a self-quenching and an ultrahigh UV/visible rejection ratio have been realized in this structure.

Ultraviolet photodetector with high internal gain enhanced by TiO₂/SrTiO₃ heterojunction

In this letter, TiO₂ nanocrystalline film was prepared on SrTiO₃ (001) substrate to form an n-n heterojunction active layer. Interdigitated Au electrodes were deposited on the top of TiO₂ film to fabricate modified HMSM (heterojunction metal-semiconductor-metal) ultraviolet photodetector. At 10 V bias, the dark current of the detector was only 0.2 nA and the responsivity was 46.1 A/W at 260 nm. The rise and fall times of the device were 3.5 ms and 1.4 s, respectively. The TiO₂/SrTiO₃ heterojunction contributed a lot to the high responsivity and reduced the fall time, which improved the device performance effectively. These results demonstrate the excellent application of TiO₂/SrTiO₃ heterojunction in fabricating high performance UV photodetectors.