See-Through Solar-Blind Deep-Ultraviolet Nanowire Thin Film Detectors for Harsh Electronics

Project: Research

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Description

In recent years, the development of fully see-through solar-blind deep-ultraviolet detectors capable of operating in harsh environments has been driven by numerous applications in the defense, commercial and scientific arenas. For instance, the first high-temperature operation of transparent deep-ultraviolet detectors employingb-Ga2O3thin films grown on crystalline sapphire substrates has just been demonstrated with the respectable performance; however, the requirement of underlying crystalline substrates would inevitably restrict the corresponding detector design, material selection and device integration for the further performance enhancement, practical utilization and commercialization. At the same time, due to the advent of nanotechnology, crystalline semiconductor nanomaterials such as nanowires have been considered as promising building blocks for future detector technologies owing to their well-established cost-effective synthesis schemes as well as their modulation of material properties through the size, morphology and atomic composition manipulation. Specifically, these crystalline nanowires can be easily manufactured on highly lattice-mismatched or even amorphous substrates, and then be printed onto any foreign substrates such as glass plates. Also, as compared with conventional thin film based detectors, the intrinsically large surface-to-volume ratio of nanowires with the carrier and photon confinement in two dimensions would give the nanowire detectors the excellent photosensitivity, low dark current and superior photoconductivity gain for the operation in extreme conditions. Even so, there are still many significant challenges in controlling the nanowire synthesis, understanding their fundamental properties, integrating multi-functional nanowires into parallel arrayed thin films, fabricating and assessing performance limits of these nanowire thin film detector circuit arrays. In this proposal, we will concentrate on theb-Ga2O3nanowire thin film system as the active photo-sensing materials in harsh conditions attributable to their excellent crystallinity, electrical tolerance, thermal stability and efficient spectral response for the wavelength range less than 280 nm. The target is to heterogeneously integrate optimizedb-Ga2O3nanowire thin films and well-developed high-mobility In2O3nanowire thin films on transparent substrates. These nanowire films can be configured as detectors and transistors, respectively, and next be interfaced to facilitate an all-nanowire on-chip integrated circuitry in order to detect and amplify deep-ultraviolet signals. In the end, we plan to build the large-scale circuit matrix as well as to assess their operational limits with the goal to establish a versatile, low-cost and powerful platform to achieve the fully see-through, solar-blind, high-performance detector arrays based on multi-functional nanowire thin films for the practical utilization in harsh environments.

Detail(s)

Project number9042205
Grant typeGRF
StatusFinished
Effective start/end date1/01/166/12/19

    Research areas

  • Gallium Oxide,Nanowire Thin Films,See-Through,Solar-Blind,