Fabrication and Characterization of ZnO Nanorods- Based UV Detectors on Flexible Substrate

Abstract

ZnO, being a wide band gap semiconductor and due to its piezo-electric property, is the most promising material for application in optoelectronics, UV sensing devices, strain sensors, nanogenerators etc. The band gap of 3.37eV falls in the UV region, thus enabling ZnO to be used as an UV detector. This report emphasizes on using this property of ZnO to fabricate UV photo-detectors. ZnO nanorods (NRs) on a glass substrate were fabricated by hydrothermal method using Zinc nitrate and HMT as precursors. Precursor concentration was varied to see the effect on NRs. XRD, SEM characterization was carried out for structural and morphological studies. The length and the diameter of the NRs were determined by SEM. Polydimethylsilcoxane (PDMS) was drop casted on ZnO NRs. PDMS served as a flexible substrate and as a polymer matrix for ZnO NRs. The response of the ZnO NRs to UV light was investigated by analyzing the I-V plots and I-t plots for the behavior both with and without UV light. It was found that the current increased with UV illumination.