Room-temperature operation of light-assisted NO2 gas sensor based on GaN nanowires and graphene

Abstract

We report the successful demonstration of a light-assisted NO2 gas sensor that operates at room temperature with high response. The gas sensor was fabricated with high-crystalline undoped-GaN nanowires (NWs) and graphene functioning as the light-absorbing medium and carrier channel, respectively. Exposure of the gas sensor to the NO2 concentration of 100 ppm at a light intensity of 1 mW cm−2 of a xenon lamp delivered a response of 16% at room temperature, which increased to 23% when the light intensity increased to 100 mW cm−2. This value is higher than those previously reported for GaN-based NO2 gas sensors operating at room temperature. The room-temperature response of the gas sensor measured after six months was calculated to be 21.9%, which corresponds to 95% compared to the value obtained immediately after fabricating the devices. The response of the gas sensor after independently injecting NO2, H2S, H2, CO, and CH3CHO gases were measured to be 23, 5, 2.6, 2.2, and 1.7%, respectively. These results indicate that the gas sensor using GaN NWs and graphene provides high response, long-term stability, and good selectivity to NO2 gas at room temperature. In addition, the use of undoped-GaN NWs without using additional catalysts makes it possible to fabricate gas sensors that operate at room temperature simpler and better than conventional technologies.