Hybrid Device Architecture Using Plasmonic Nanoparticles, Graphene Quantum Dots, and Titanium Dioxide for UV Photodetectors

Sundar Kunwar; Sanchaya Pandit; Rakesh Kulkarni; Rutuja Mandavkar; Shusen Lin; Ming-Yu Li; Jihoon Lee

doi:10.1021/acsami.0c19058

Hybrid Device Architecture Using Plasmonic Nanoparticles, Graphene Quantum Dots, and Titanium Dioxide for UV Photodetectors

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2021 Jan 20;13(2):3408-3418. doi: 10.1021/acsami.0c19058. Epub 2021 Jan 5.

Authors

Sundar Kunwar¹, Sanchaya Pandit¹, Rakesh Kulkarni¹, Rutuja Mandavkar¹, Shusen Lin¹, Ming-Yu Li², Jihoon Lee¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Electronic Engineering, College of Electronics and Information, Kwangwoon University, Nowon-gu Seoul 01897, South Korea.
² School of Science, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 430070, China.

PMID: 33399456
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.0c19058

Abstract

In this work, a nanoscale device architecture is demonstrated for a UV photodetector application on sapphire (0001), incorporating the plasmonic hybrid nanoparticles (HNPs), graphene quantum dots (GQDs), and titanium oxide (TiO₂) for the first time. The hybrid GQDs/TiO₂/HNPs photodetector exhibits the photocurrent of 1.58 × 10^-5 A under the 1.64 mW/mm² of 275 nm illumination at 10 V, which is around two order increase from the bare TiO₂ device. The proposed architecture demonstrates a low dark current of ∼1 × 10^-10 A at 10 V and thus the device demonstrates an excellent photo to dark current ratio along with the improved rise and fall time on the order of several hundred millisecond. The enhanced performance of device architecture is attributed to the efficient utilization of localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) induced hot carriers as well as scattered photons from the plasmonic HNPs that are fully encapsulated by the photoactive TiO₂ layers. Furthermore, the addition of GQDs on the TiO₂ can offer an additional photon absorption pathway. The proposed hybrid architecture of GQDs/TiO₂/HNPs demonstrates the integration of the photon absorption and carrier transfer properties of plasmonic HNPs, GQDs, and TiO₂ for an enhanced ultraviolet (UV) photoresponse. The photocurrent enhancement mechanisms of the hybrid device architecture are thoroughly investigated based on the finite-difference time domain (FDTD) simulation along with the energy band analysis. This work demonstrates a great potential of the hybrid device architecture for high-performance UV photodetectors.

Keywords: graphene quantum dots; hybrid UV photodetectors; physio-chemical approach; plasmonic nanoparticles; titanium dioxide.