Near-ultraviolet photodetector using cerium hexaboride alloy

This article investigates a new type of heterostructure photodetector (PD) made of cerium hexaboride (CeB6) and tungsten (W) alloy deposited on top of a nitrogen-doped silicon carbide substrate. Density function theory (DFT) suggests that the alloy with 67% CeB6 and 33% W provides an optimal photo response for the PD. The optimum alloy thickness is computed numerically using particle swamp optimization (PSO) in lumerical Finite difference time domain (FDTD) software, and the alloy is fabricated using direct current (DC) and radio frequency (RF) sputtering. The performance of the PD is experimentally characterized, and our findings show a maximum photocurrent of 71.86 nA and a maximum responsivity of 94.1 µAW−1 at the near ultraviolet (UV) wavelength of 405 nm.