Photovoltaic and photodetector performance of metal telluride nanowires grown by a simple CVD method

Abstract

A simple chemical vapor deposition method was used to grow zinc telluride (ZnTe) and lead telluride (PbTe) nanowires (NWs) as metal tellurides NWs. The optical properties of the NWs were studied and it was observed that, the ZnTe and PbTe NWs had edge absorption at approximately 590 and 850 nm, respectively. The photodetective applications of the ZnTe and PbTe NWs were examined under the emission of green and near-infrared (NIR) sources, respectively, using a chopper. The results indicated that, the ZnTe NWs showed higher photocurrent and faster response than the PbTe NWs. The photovoltaic applications of the samples were investigated by a solar simulator system under ambient condition. It was discovered that the PbTe NWs showed an excellent photovoltaic performance in comparison to the ZnTe NWs. Finally, the photosensitivity of the samples was also analyzed by different lighted emission diodes between UV and NIR region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Furthermore, it was observed that the ZnTe NWs showed higher sensitivity to a region between the violet and green region, while, the PbTe NWs showed higher sensitivity to a region between the green and IR region.