High-responsivity flexible ultraviolet photodetector via single aluminum nitride nanowire

Abstract

Highly responsive, flexible aluminum nitride single nanowire ultraviolet photodetector (AlNNW-UVPD) is reported for the first time with the highest responsivity of 1197.5 mA/W along with an excellent external quantum efficiency of 584% under 254-nm UV light exposure at 30 V bias. A flexible nanoscale photodetector on a very small scale was fabricated through a scalable and highly cost-efficient hot-contact method. With this method, we were able to achieve arrays of very small size devices with gold microelectrodes of size 110 mu m x 110 mu m and narrow gaps of 4 mu m between the electrodes capable of operating at 0 V (self-powered) and 30 V. Our UV sensor displayed the highest detectivity of 2.32 x 10(12) cm:Hz(1/2):W-1 as a flexible AlN single nanowire device under 30 V bias. Moreover, the device demonstrated a very good wavelength selectivity and a very fast response speed along with very high durability against bending testing. In short, highly responsive, flexible, very small, cost-effective, and durable AlNNW-UVPD can provide opportunities for multifunctional, portable, sensitive, wearable, and smart sensors in optoelectronics and flexible electronics. (C) 2021 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)