High-performance ultraviolet photodetectors based on ZnO/Au/ZnO sandwich structure

We developed sandwich ultraviolet photodetectors by a radio frequency magnetron sputtering method. As expected, the performances of the optimized ZnO/Au/ZnO sandwich photodetectors are much better than that of a metal-semiconductor-metal structure through combing high responsivity (enlarged ~60 times) and low dark current (reduced by more than two orders of magnitudes). To investigate the above phenomena, simulations of electric-field intensity distribution in the two structured photodetectors were performed using the ANSYS software. A proposed physical mechanism is used to explain the above results, which agree well with the simulations.