A self-driven, polarized-liquid-based ultraviolet photodetector
Chang Liu, Yanghua Lu, Yi Zhang, Xutao Yu, Can Wang, Runjiang Shen, Shisheng Lin
Abstract
Traditionally, photodetectors are based on solid materials composed of P-N junctions, which require delicate growth technologies. In this article, we demonstrate the feasibility of a polarized-liquid-triggered photodetector where the liquid is sandwiched between P- and N-type semiconductors. Under multiple cycles of optical switching, a transient photopolarized current, a steady-state photopolarized current, and a depolarized current are repeatably observed in a semiconductor/polar liquid/semiconductor structure. The responsivity and specific detectivity of the transient photopolarized current in N-GaN/W/P-GaN reaches 104.2 mA/W and 4.4 × 1012 Jones at 365 nm, 52.8 mA/W, and 1.9 × 1012 Jones at 254 nm illumination under zero bias voltage. We anticipate that our research may be useful for integrating self-powered photodetectors with freely selectable wavelength bands.