Enhanced photo-response properties of a single ZnO microwire photodetector by coupling effect between localized Schottky barriers and piezoelectric potential

The coupling effect between localized Schottky barriers (SBs) and piezoelectric potential that impact the photo-response properties of a single ZnO microwire (MW) photodetector (PD) is studied. Localized SBs is introduced by Au NPs decoration. The negatively charged Au NPs deplete more carriers near the ZnO surface, which raises the SB height and sharply reduces the recover time of the PD from 142.4 s to 0.7 s. Moreover, after applying the compressive strain, the band structure of ZnO MW changes and piezoelectric potential generates, which further raises the SB height, thickens the depletion region and improves photo-response properties of the detector. The dark current is reduced by about 5 orders and its on/off current ratio increased by about 6 orders, which decreases the power consumption of the detector significantly. Under the above coupling effect between piezoelectric potential and localized SBs, the recover time of the detector is further reduced to 0.1 s ultimately. This work suggests that rational integration of localized SBs and piezoelectric potential is a viable approach to get ZnO MW PDs with high on/off ratio, ultrafast response speed and low power consumption. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America