Abstract
The sensitivity of silicon nanopillar array for relative humidity (RH) with UV illumination was investigated in this work. The silicon nanopillar array was prepared by nanosphere lithography. Electrical measurements were performed on its sensing performance with and without UV irradiation. It was found that UV light improved the humidity sensitivity with different UV light wavelengths and power. The sensor response and recovery time were reduced. Furthermore, the turn-on threshold voltage and the operating voltage both decreased. These sensing characteristics can mainly be attributed to the electron-hole pairs generated by UV light. These electron-hole pairs promote the adsorption and desorption processes. The results indicate that silicon nanopillar array materials with UV irradiation might be competitive as novel sensing materials for fabricating humidity sensors with high performances.
Highlights
The humidity sensor is one of the most important sensors that has been used extensively in our daily life
Mahjoub et al demonstrated that a high sensitivity to the relative humidity was observed from the size-controlled ZnO quantum dots (QDs) embedded into a SiO2 matrix [14]
The results show that the nanopillar turn-on sensor without and with light irradiation was performed
Summary
The humidity sensor is one of the most important sensors that has been used extensively in our daily life. These metal oxide semiconductor film humidity sensors obtained high sensitivity, a short response time, and good long-term stability, the development of Si-based material sensors is highly desirable, because of their ease in integrating with the already existing Si integrated circuit technology Many methods, such as applying a high electric field across the sensor terminals [17], doping noble metals in the metal oxide [18], and illuminating the gas sensor with UV radiation [19], were used to further improve the sensing characteristics. These sensing characteristics indicate that Si-NPA sensors with UV irradiation might be used in the future
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