Visible and UV photo-detection in ZnO nanostructured thin films via simple tuning of solution method

Abstract

This study demonstrates significant visible light photo-detection capability of pristine ZnO nanostructure thin films possessing substantially high percentage of oxygen vacancies $$({V}_{o}{\rm{s}})$$ ( V o s ) and zinc interstitials $$(Z{n}_{i}{\rm{s}})$$ ( Z n i s ) , introduced by simple tuning of economical solution method. The demonstrated visible light photo-detection capability, in addition to the inherent UV light detection ability of ZnO, shows great dependency of $${V}_{o}{\rm{s}}$$ V o s and $$Z{n}_{i}{\rm{s}}$$ Z n i s with the nanostructure morphology. The dependency was evaluated by analyzing the presence/percentage of $${V}_{o}{\rm{s}}$$ V o s and $$Z{n}_{i}{\rm{s}}$$ Z n i s using photoluminescence (PL) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements. Morphologies of ZnO viz. nanoparticles (NPs), nanosheets (NSs) and nanoflowers (NFs), as a result of tuning of synthesis method contended different concentrations of defects, demonstrated different photo-detection capabilities in the form of a thin film photodetector. The photo-detection capability was investigated under different light excitations (UV; 380~420 nm, white ; λ > 420 nm and green; 490~570 nm). The as fabricated NSs photodetector possessing comparatively intermediate percentage of $${V}_{o}{\rm{s}}$$ V o s ~ 47.7% and $$Z{n}_{i}{\rm{s}}$$ Z n i s ~ 13.8% exhibited superior performance than that of NPs and NFs photodetectors, and ever reported photodetectors fabricated by using pristine ZnO nanostructures in thin film architecture. The adopted low cost and simplest approach makes the pristine ZnO-NSs applicable for wide-wavelength applications in optoelectronic devices.