High performance Cu₂O film/ZnO nanowires self-powered photodetector by electrochemical deposition

Self-powered photodetectors based on nanomaterials have attracted lots of attention for several years due to their various advantages. In this paper, we report a high performance Cu₂O/ZnO self-powered photodetector fabricated by using electrochemical deposition. ZnO nanowires arrays grown on indium-tin-oxide glass are immersed in Cu₂O film to construct type-Ⅱ band structure. The Cu₂O/ZnO photodetector exhibits a responsivity of 0.288 mA/W at 596 nm without bias. Compared with Cu₂O photoconductive detector, the responsivity of the Cu₂O/ZnO self-powered photodetector is enhanced by about two times at 2 V bias. It is attributed to the high power conversion efficiency and the efficient separation of the photogenerated electron-hole pairs, which are provided by the heterojunction. The outstanding comprehensive performances make the Cu₂O film/ZnO nanowires self-powered photodetector have great potential applications.