High performance near ultraviolet ray detector by cluster-wrapped surface structure in ferroelectrics

Abstract

High-sensitivity detectors for near-ultraviolet rays are of great importance in civil and military fields. Recently, great efforts have been made to enhance the sensitivity, but mainly at the cost of increasing energy consumption or bulk volume. High-performance near-ultraviolet ray detector was fabricated using ZnO clusters compounded in ferroelectric Bi4.5Na0.5Ti4O15 composites, which exhibit ultrahigh sensitivity detectivity (D*), linear dynamic response (LDR) and photoconductance σ(λ) of up to 3.9 × 1011 Jones, 52.04 dB, and 3.9 × 10-10 S/m, respectively. The three-parameter criterions are over a wide wavelength range larger than that of a semiconductor. High external quantum efficiency 4.6 % is to ensure the self-powered device. Such a brilliant virtue is attributed to the artificial transport layer by the superior ZnO cluster surface-wrapped structure, which effectively transports the electrons or holes induced by photons. These pioneering findings indicate that the ZnO cluster surface-wrapped structure may be useful for the assembly of ferroelectric high-performance UV photoelectronic devices in the near future.