Transformation from Film to Nanorod via a Sacrifical Layer: Pulsed Laser Deposition of ZnO for Enhancing Photodetector Performance

A novel fabrication method for single crystalline ZnO nanorods by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) using a chemical-bath-deposited ZnS seed layer is proposed. For the substrate temperature (T(s)) lower than 700 °C, the PLD-ZnO showed a polycrystalline phase and film-type morphology, resulting from the ZnS seed layer with a cubic phase. However, the ZnS film became a sacrifical layer and single crystalline ZnO(002) nanorods can be achieved at T(s) of 900 °C, where ZnS was decomposed to zinc metals and sulfur fumes. The transformation from ZnO film to nanorod microstructure was demonstrated with the change of ZnS layer into Zn grains. Enhanced performance of the metal-semiconductor-metal photodetectors were fabricated with ZnO/ZnS samples grown at T(s) of 500, 700, and 900 °C. The responsivities (@1 V and 370 nm) of these three devices were 1.71, 6.35, and 98.67 A/W, while their UV-to-visible discrimination ratios were 7.2, 16.5, and 439.1, respectively. Obviously, a higher light-capturing efficiency was obtained in the 900 °C-grown ZnO/ZnS device owing to its one-dimensional nanostructure with high crystal quality. The results indicate PLD combined with a sacrifical nanostructure is a promising method for obtaining high-quality ZnO nanorods, which paves the way for the fabrication of high performance ZnO-based devices.