Abstract
•UV photoconductive ZnO:Ga films were synthesized by cost-effective two step CBD method.•Influence of Ga incorporation on structural, optical and UV photodetector properties of ZnO films was studied.•Ga (3%) doping decrease the bandgap and increases the crystallinity of ZnO film.•ZnO:Ga (3%) film based UV detector exhibits highest responsivity of 0.38 A/W using 385 nm illumination.
Schematic diagram of the preparation process of GZO thin film, PL and its photo-sensing study [Display omitted]
The present study establishes the UV photodetector capability of Zinc Oxide (ZnO) and Gallium incorporated ZnO (GZO) thin films prepared by a simplified two-step chemical bath deposition technique. The prepared UV detectors were characterized by tools such as XRD, SEM, UV, PL and Photoresponse to investigate their properties. The structural study revealed the enhancement of film crystallinity with respect to Ga doping level. The optical studies confirm the higher absorption at UV range for 3% Ga doped ZnO film. From PL study, the green emission observed at 522 nm is associated with the defects from oxygen vacancies (Vo+). Once the UV light is irradiated on the GZO film surface, electrons and holes are generated as the illumination energy is larger than the ZnO bandgap energy, known as above-band energy illumination. The photo-generated holes then neutralize the chemisorbed ions causing the release of electrons in the conduction band of ZnO, this could increase the photocurrent. In this study, the calculated photo-detectivity (D*), responsivity (R) and external quantum efficiency (EQE) of the prepared UV detectors are 1.24 ×1010 jones, 0.38 AW-1, and 125.10% respectively for 3% Ga doped ZnO film. These parameters are noticeable and this study proves that GZO films in fact work as good sensitive UV detectors.