Photoelectric properties of tellurium nanowires by a green thermal solvothermal method

Abstract

As typical P-type narrow-band semiconductors, tellurium nanostructures have received extensive attention in fabrication of modern microdevices. However, their synthesis generally requires the use of toxic reducing agents and difficult operating conditions. In this study, a green thermal solvothermal method was used to synthesize tellurium nanowires, whereby Polyvinylpyrrolidone was used as a soft template and ethylene glycol was used not only as a mild solvent but also as a reducing agent. We studied the optoelectronic properties of tellurium nanowire devices, the mobility of which was 200 cm2v−1s−1 at 7 K. We also measured the transient response under 650 nm laser irradiation, and spectral response of tellurium nanowire photodetectors degree was 1.02 WA−1. Photoelectric effect generation mechanism for tellurium nanowires was at the same time further studied. We believe that tellurium nanowires have great development prospects in the field of optoelectronic devices.