Laser-assisted chemical bath deposition of TiO2 nanoparticles for UV photodetection

Abstract

Extensive research has been conducted on UV photodetectors employing titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2-NPs), which exhibit numerous advantageous qualities, notably encompassing fascinating switching behaviour and strong photosensitivity. An efficient TiO2 NPs synthesis process is essential for the quality and output of photodetectors. A quick synthesis process can lead to less energy and cost consumption, sustainable production processes, increased reaction rate, and improved homogeneity of the reaction resulting high quality films with low impurities. In this study, we exhibited a simple and quick laser-assisted chemical bath deposition (LACBD) method to synthesize high crystalline TiO2 nanoparticles for UV detection. The TiO2-NPs were synthesized by irradiating the tiny area between aluminium (Al) electrodes submerged in TiO2 precursor (in situ chemical bath) with a blue laser of wavelength (460 nm), power (1 W), and deposition duration (25 minutes). UV photodetector built from TiO2-NPs with (Al/TiO2-NPs/Al)/Glass architecture was examined, and our findings proved that TiO2 synthesized by LACBD has potential UV sensing and detecting properties. TiO2-NPs were examined by FESEM, EDX, and XRD. Measurements of current-voltage, I-V and current-time, I-T were employed to analyze the (Al/TiO2-NPs/Al)/Glass UV photodetector performance. Based on the results, it proved that the synthesis method of TiO2-NPs by LACBD is a promising and viable route, resulting in satisfactory reaction yield and low contamination. The responsivity, specific detectivity, and external quantum efficiency could reach as high as 1.36e-1 A/W, 2.87e+7 Jones and 46.1 % respectively at −5 V bias voltage.