Fabrication and photoresponse of ZnO nanowires/CuO coaxial heterojunction

The fabrication and properties of n-ZnO nanowires/p-CuO coaxial heterojunction (CH) with a photoresist (PR) blocking layer are reported. In our study, c-plane wurtzite ZnO nanowires were grown by aqueous chemical method, and monoclinic CuO (111) was then coated on the ZnO nanowires by electrochemical deposition to form CH. To improve the device performance, a PR layer was inserted between the ZnO buffer layer and the CuO film to serve as a blocking layer to block the leakage current. Structural investigations of the CH indicate that the sample has good crystalline quality. It was found that our refined structure possesses a better rectifying ratio and smaller reverse leakage current. As there is a large on/off ratio between light on and off and the major light response is centered at around 424 nm, the experimental results suggest that the PR-inserted ZnO/CuO CH can be used as a good narrow-band blue light detector.