High-performance self-powered visible-blind ultraviolet photodetection achieved by ferroelectric PbZr0.52Ti0.48O3 thin films

Self-powered visible-blind ultraviolet (UV) photodetection has been generally achieved based on the builtin electric field formed within the complicated devices such as pn or Schottky junctions, which involves a complicated device fabrication process. In contrast, employing the ferroelectric materials featured with unique bulk photovoltaic effect as absorbers will simplify the device structure and the subsequent device fabrication process without losing the performance of self-powered photodetection. In the current work, the fabrication of high-performance self-powered visible-blind UV photodetectors based on ferroelectric PbZr0.52Ti0.48O3 (PZT) thin films has been reported. The results showed that the spin-coated PZT thin films exhibited superior ferroelectric properties. On this basis, an efficient, stable, and repeatable self-powered UV photodetection has been achieved in the Au/PZT/FTO (fluorine-doped tin oxide) structured devices with the responsivity and detectivity as high as 0.092 A/W and 1.2 x 10(12) Jones, respectively. More interestingly, the self-powered photocurrent has been further enhanced when downward polarizing the PZT thin film. The results reported in this work highlight the superiorities of ferroelectric PZT-based self-powered visibleblind UV photodetectors and provide valuable strategies for the fabrication of high-performance selfpowered photodetectors with a simplified device structure in the future. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.