Dielectrophoretic Assembly of Aluminum Nitride (AlN) Single Nanowire Deep Ultraviolet Photodetector

Abstract

High UV-light sensitivity, fast response, and low power consumption are the most important features of nanowire-based devices for new applications in photodetectors, optical switches, and image sensors. Single AlN nanowire deep ultraviolet (UV) photodetector has been fabricated utilizing very high-quality AlN nanowires through a very practical dielectrophoretic assembly scheme. The low-voltage (≤ 3 V) operating UV photodetector has selectively shown a high photocurrent response to the 254 nm UV light. Furthermore, the photocurrent transients have been modelled to determine the rise and decay time constants as 7.7 s and 11.5 s, respectively. In consequence, combination of deep UV light selectivity and low voltage operation make AlN nanowires great candidates for the development of compact deep UV photodetectors.