Piezo-phototronic UV photosensing with ZnO nanowires array

Here a promising approach is proposed to enhance the responsivity of a ZnO nanowires array based photodetector with metal-semiconductor-metal structure through piezo-phototronic effect. The ZnO nanowires arrays were synthesized on the surface of ZnO seedlayer via hydrothermal method. Using polarization charges created at metal-ZnO interface under strain to modulate the local Schottky barrier height (SBH), the responsivity of the prepared photon sensor was increased by as much as 107% when the device was subjected to a -0.67% compressive strain. This work not only strengthens the fundamental understanding of piezo-phototronic effect on photodetectors but also provides an efficient means for optimization/improvement of piezoelectric semiconductor nanowires based optoelectronic devices.