ZnO/Ag nanowires composite film ultraviolet photoconductive detector**Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 61176056, 91323303, 91123019), the 111 Program (No. B14040), and the Open Projects from the Institute of Photonics and Photo-Technology, Provincial Key Laboratory of Photoelectronic Technology, Northwest University, China.

Abstract

ZnO/Ag nanowires (NWs) film ultraviolet (UV) detector was fabricated by a simple and low-cost solution-processed method. In order to prepare this device, Ag NWs network was first spin-coated on glass substrate as a transparent conducting electrode, then ZnO NWs arrays were grown vertically on the Ag NWs network based on the hydrothermal method. This UV detector exhibited an excellent detection performance with large on/off ratio and short response time. Several process and working parameters were particularly investigated to analyze the relationship between structure and performance, which include growth time of ZnO NWs array, spin speed of Ag NWs network and working temperature. This UV photoconductive detector is based on two kinds of one-dimension nanomaterials, and it was regarded as a compromise between high performance with large area, low voltage and low cost.