InGaO3 Nanowire Networks for Deep Ultraviolet Photodetectors

Abstract

Wide band gap semiconductor nanomaterials have great research prospects in power semiconductor devices, radio frequency devices, optoelectronic sensor devices, and so on. Among them, gallium oxide is considered as the representative material of wide band gap semiconductor nanomaterials as a deep ultraviolet (UV) photoelectric sensing device because of its 4.9 eV band gap width. However, the traditional synthesis of this kind of metal oxide semiconductor nanomaterials by the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method still has some problems. The experimental process is not easy to achieve due to the high temperature of 960 °C, and the lower photocurrent makes it difficult to read the photoelectric signal for subsequent devices because of the optical response current of the order of nanoampere. In this work, gallium antimonide and indium antimonide were selected as the nutrition reaction materials, while oxygen is used as the oxide materials. InGaO₃ nanowire network materials were prepared at a lower temperature of 700 °C and a lower working pressure of 0.2 kPa, the deep UV photoelectric response of the optoelectronic devices was measured, and high performance was obtained at 5 V bias, like at a power of 0.64 μW/cm², the response is 80.1 A/W, detection is 1.03 × 10¹⁴, and the external quantum efficiency is 3.9 × 10⁴. Especially, the photoelectric current 34.1 μA is far larger than that of the level of several nanoampere traditional gallium oxide devices. Its reaction principle is that In and Ga metal nucleate and oxidize on the substrate to form InGaO₃ nanowires after antimonide decomposition at 700 °C temperature, which is lower than 960 °C of the traditional CVD reaction method. This mechanism is different from that of traditional graphite and oxide powder reduction, which can save energy. In a word, this research has invented a method for preparing indium doping gallium oxide nanomaterials, which provides a reference for rapid preparation of response materials and low-energy consumption for deep UV photoelectric devices.