Performance of ZnO Quantum Dots Based

Photodetectors: Effect of Metal Electrodes

Smrity Ratan*, Chandan Kumar, Student Member, IEEE, Amit Kumar, Student Member, IEEE, Deepak Kumar Jarwal, Ashwini Kumar
Mishra, Rishibrind Kumar Upadhyay, Student Member, IEEE, and Satyabrata Jit#, Senior Member, IEEE
Department of Electronics Engineering
IIT (BHU), Varanasi
Varanasi, India-221005
Email: *smrityr.rs.ece15@iitbhu.ac.in, #sjit.ece@iitbhu.ac.in

Abstract The fabrication and characterizations of ZnO important properties of ZnO, simple and easy synthesis
quantum dots (QDs) based interdigitated metal- technique for its nanostructure [14] [16]. These features
semiconductor-metal (MSM) photodetector using different force researchers to investigate the electrical and optical
electrode metals is reported in this work. The colloidal ZnO properties of ZnO QDs using photodetectors. The electrical
QDs used for the photodetection have an average particle size and optical characteristics with three metal electrodes have
of ~2.53 nm. The interdigitated pattern of gold (Au), silver been investigated. The stability and the reliability of the
(Ag), and aluminum (Al) metals are formed over ZnO QDs. fabricated photodetector under different environmental
The comparative study of these metal electrodes is carried out conditions are also examined.
in terms of I-V characteristics, time response, responsivity, and
stability under dark and UV illumination. It is found that the
photodetector using Au interdigitated electrode has better II. EXPERIMENTAL DETAILS
electrical and optical performance as compared to Ag and Al ZnO QDs with a particle size of ~2.53 nm is synthesised
electrodes. using zinc acetate dehydrate (Precursor) with equal molar of
MEA (Regent) and 2-methoxyethanol (Coordinating ligand)
Keywords Photodetector, ZnO QDs, Metal-semiconductor-
metal, Responsivity.
as reported in the previous report [7], [11]. For the device
fabrication, glass substrates of (15×15 mm2) are cleaned
ultrasonically in the soap solution, deionized (DI) water,
I. INTRODUCTION acetone, and isopropanol for 5 minutes each. The cleaned
The ultraviolet (UV) photodetector plays a very glass substrates are dry on a hot plate for a few minutes. The
important role in the various field of flame sensing, missile 500 mM ZnO QDs solution is deposited on cleaned glass
plume detection, medical diagnostic, chemical analysis, substrates by the spin coating (SPM-150LC, GmbH)
advanced optical communication etc. [1], [2]. It is always technique at 3000 rpm for 30 s. To obtain the thickness of
challenging to fabricate a UV photodetector having better ~60 nm, the process is repeated for multiple times and each
performance in terms of high sensitivity, good reliability, time the film is dried at 200°C for 10 minutes. Finally, the
low fabrication cost, long lifetime, lightweight, and the film is annealed at 450°C on a hot plate for 30 minutes under
ability to operate in harsh environmental conditions [3]. Zhu ambient air conditions. The 50 nm thin metal electrodes of
et al. [4] have fabricated a p-n heterojunction photodetector Au, Ag, and Al are deposited on ZnO QDs thin film using
using undoped n-ZnO film deposited on p-GaN. Yu and Tian shadow masking to obtain an interdigitated pattern with the
[5] have reported the enhanced selectivity and responsivity channel length of 300 µm in thermal evaporation (FL400
using Au/ZnO/Au structure with ZnO NPs. Ni et al. [3] have from HHV. India) at a vacuum of ~2×10-6 mbar. The cross-
fabricated an insulating ZnO (i-ZnO)/n-ZnO structure. Wang sectional diagram of the as-fabricated photodetector and
et al. [6] have fabricated the photodetector using photodetection setup is shown in Fig. 1 (a) and 1 (b),
electrodeposited ZnO nanorods and poly-N-vinylcarbazole respectively.
as the electron acceptor and donor, respectively. It is found
that the additional layer is used by most of the authors for the III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
optical filtering purpose. It not only makes a complex device
structure but also deteriorates the responsivity characteristics. A. Structural analysis
Recently, Kumar et al. [7] have fabricated a low-cost The fabricated thin film ZnO QDs photodetectors using
solution-processed ZnO quantum dot (QDs) based different electrodes are investigated using glancing angle
photodetector using silver electrode for enhanced incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXRD, Model no. XDMAX,
responsivity and recovery time. PC-20 18kW Cu rotating anode, RIGAKU) in continuous
In the view of literature reported and the high demand of scan mode from 30 degree to 80 degree. The
UV photodetectors, we have fabricated ZnO QDs based XRD measurement is used to examine the formation of
photodetector using different electrodes of Au, Ag, and Al phase and crystalline structure using -
metals. ZnO has many interesting features as direct bandgap 0.1542 nm). XRD patterns as shown in Fig. 2 confirms the
semiconductor having a large band gap, high electron pure ZnO quantum dot grown on a glass substrate is a
saturation velocity, high irradiation resistance etc. [8] [10]. hexagonal structure (JCPDS No. 36-1451). Strong diffraction
These properties of ZnO make suitable for ultraviolet (UV) peak at 34.44° which shows the diffraction from the ZnO
detection [4] due to absorption in the UV region of the (002) facet and another two weak peaks at 36.26° and 47.54°
optical spectrum [11], [12]. Nanostructures of a which shows the diffraction from the (101) and (102) facet,
semiconducting material such as QDs are an ideal candidate respectively which clearly indicate that ZnO quantum dot is
for photodetection due to tuneable bandgap, controllable of high phase purity. In the case of the gold electrode device,
transport and trap state property [13]. One of the most there is another peak at 38.17° and it is due to diffraction

978-1-5386-8235-7/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE

 B. Electrical and optical characterizations
The fabricated photodetectors are electrically
characterized for the bias voltage from 0 to 10 V under dark
and UV illumination conditions using a semiconductor
parameter analyzer (SPA, Model B1500A from Keysight,
USA). UV light source is assembled using six UV LED of
360 nm wavelength and power density of 0.58 mW/cm2.
This custom-made UV source is exposed to the
photodetectors and the respective change in the current are
measured. The current-voltage (I-V) characteristics for all the
electrodes under dark and UV illumination are shown in Fig.
3. There is a significant change between dark current (ID) and
Fig. 1. (a) Cross-sectional view of the as-fabricated photodetector and (b) current (IUV) after exposing UV light in all three devices. It is
Photodetection setup.
found that the photodetector with gold electrode has the
lowest dark current and highest UV response as compared to
silver and aluminium electrodes. The lower dark current in
the photodetector with the gold interdigitated electrode is due
to the formation of Schottky contact between ZnO QDs and
Au.
The UV responses of the fabricated photodetectors are
also examined in different environmental conditions such as
vacuum, ambient air and O2 environment, respectively as
shown in Fig. 4. The photodetector with all three electrodes
have almost constant UV response under different
environmental conditions. It is found that the photodetector
with gold electrode has better UV response in all three
conditions. It is found that the dark current is slightly

Fig. 2. XRD image of the ZnO thin film along with Au, Ag, and Al
electrode.

from the Au (111) facet as shown in Fig. 2. In the case of

the silver electrode device, there is another peak at 38° and
it is due to diffraction from the Ag (111) facet as shown in
Fig. 2. Finally, in the case of the aluminium electrode
device, the peak occurs at 35.86° is due to diffraction from
Al (111) facet as shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 4. Electrical response of photodetector under different environmental

conditions with Au, Ag, and Al electrode.

Fig. 3. XRD image of the ZnO thin film along with Au, Ag, and Al
electrode.

Fig. 5. Time response of photodetector under (a) 1 V bias condition and

(b) 5 V bias condition.
increased for the gold electrode, whereas decreased for Re = (Photocurrent density)/(Optical power density) (1)
aluminium electrode due to enhanced charge transportation
with aluminium electrode.
Photocurrent density = (Photocurrent)/(Area) (2)
The time response is carried out at two different applied
voltages of 1 V and 5 V, respectively as shown in Fig 5.
Time response of the gold interdigitated device is faster than Here, the area of the interdigitated electrode is 0.0882
silver and aluminum interdigitated electrode device at both cm2 and optical power density is 3.5 mW/cm2. In case of
the applied voltage. The photodetector with Au electrode gold electrode device, the maximum responsivities are
under an applied voltage of 1 V is exposed to UV light for obtained at both the applied biasing of 1 V and 5 V. For 1 V
one minute then current goes from 1.85 µA to 68.2 µA. biasing, responsivity in gold electrode is 402.66 mA/W while
When UV light is switch off for one minute then the current in case of silver electrode its value is 2.588 mA/W and for
value goes down to 33.45 µA. Again, when UV light is on aluminum electrode its value is 28.45 mA/W. For 5 V
then it takes only 18 sec to goes up from 33.45 µA to 68.2 biasing, responsivity in gold electrode device is 846.9 mA/W
µA. Further, when the light is off then it takes approximately while for silver its value is 17.33 mA/W and for aluminum,
one minute to goes down from 68.2 µA to 33.45 µA. The its value is 268.1 mA/W.
similar current trend is observed with an applied voltage of 5 The external quantum efficiency (EQE) of the
V. The photodetector current increased to 0.138 mA from fabricated device is calculated using the following relation:
1.98 µA when UV light is on for one minute. When light is
off for one minute its value goes down to 26.02 µA. Further,
it takes only 21 sec to goes current to 0.138 mA from 26.02 EQE = (Re ×1240)/ (3)
µA when UV light switched on again. Finally, the current
decrease to 26.02 µA when UV light source is switched off
again for approximately one minute.
Where Re is responsivity and is a wavelength in
Similarly, silver electrode device at 1 V biasing is nanometer. Here, the value is 360 nm. EQE value of the
exposed to UV light source for one minute then current fabricated device is 1.9, 0.038, and 1.01 for Au, Ag, and Al
increase to 0.74 µA from 0.075 µA. When UV source is electrode device, respectively. Thus, ZnO QDs with Au
switch off for one minute then current value decrease to 0.25 electrode has higher external quantum efficiency over Ag
µA from 0.74 µA. Again when UV light source is on then it and Al metal electrodes.
takes only 32 sec to increase to 0.74 µA from 0.25 µA. When
the light source is off then it takes approx. one minute to IV. CONCLUSION
reach a current value of 0.25 µA from 0.74 µA. For 5 V
supply, the current level in same device increases to 2.81 µA The low-cost ZnO QDs based photodetectors with
from 0.198 µA when UV light source is on for one minute different electrode metals such as Au, Ag, and Al have been
and when the light source is off for one minute its value fabricated. The fabricated photodetectors are electrically
decrease to 1.29 µA from 2.81 µA. It takes only 17 sec to characterized under dark and UV illuminations. The
increase current to 2.81 µA from 1.29 µA when UV source photodetectors are also investigated for stability and
switched on again. Again approx. one & half minutes it takes reliability in different environmental conditions. It is
to reach current level 1.29 µA from 2.81 µA when UV observed that ZnO QDs based photodetector with Au
source switched off. electrode gives better electrical and UV response as
compared to Ag and Al electrodes.
The similar trend is also observed for aluminium
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