ACS Nano
ACS Nano
5 years ago

Light-Triggered Pyroelectric Nanogenerator Based on a pn-Junction for Self-Powered Near-Infrared Photosensing

Light-Triggered Pyroelectric Nanogenerator Based on a pn-Junction for Self-Powered Near-Infrared Photosensing
Ruiyuan Liu, Xu He, Shuti Li, Yejing Dai, Xingfu Wang, Zhong Lin Wang
A nanogenerator, as a self-powered system, can operate without an external power supply for energy harvesting, signal processing, and active sensing. Here, near-infrared (NIR) photothermal triggered pyroelectric nanogenerators based on pn-junctions are demonstrated in a p-Si/n-ZnO nanowire (NW) heterostructure for self-powered NIR photosensing. The pyroelectric-polarization potential (pyro-potential) induced within wurtzite ZnO NWs couples with the built-in electric field of the pn-junction. At the moment of turning on or off the NIR illumination, external current flow is induced by the time-varying internal electric field of the pn-heterostructure, which enables a bias-free operation of the photodetectors (PDs). The NIR PD exhibits a high on/off photocurrent ratio up to 107 and a fast photoresponse component with a rise time of 15 μs and a fall time of 21 μs. This work provides an unconventional strategy to achieve active NIR sensing, which may find promising applications in biological imaging, optoelectronic communications, and optothermal detections.

Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.7b03560

DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.7b03560

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