Here we report the fabrication of high-performance ultraviolet photodetectors based on a heterojunction device structure in which ZnO quantum dots were used to decorate Zn₂SnO₄ nanowires. Systematic investigations have shown their ultrahigh light-to-dark current ratio (up to 6.8 × 10⁴), specific detectivity (up to 9.0 × 10¹⁷ Jones), photoconductive gain (up to 1.1 × 10⁷), fast response, and excellent stability. Compared with a pristine Zn₂SnO₄ nanowire, a quantum dot decorated nanowire demonstrated about 10 times higher photocurrent and responsivity. Device physics modeling showed that their high performance originates from the rational energy band engineering, which allows efficient separation of electron-hole pairs at the interfaces between ZnO quantum dots and a Zn₂SnO₄ nanowire. As a result of band engineering, holes migrate to ZnO quantum dots, which increases electron concentration and lifetime in the nanowire conduction channel, leading to significantly improved photoresponse. The enhancement mechanism found in this work can also be used to guide the design of high-performance photodetectors based on other nanomaterials. Furthermore, flexible ultraviolet photodetectors were fabricated and integrated into a 10 × 10 device array, which constitutes a high-performance flexible ultraviolet image sensor. These intriguing results suggest that the band alignment engineering on nanowires can be rationally achieved using compound semiconductor quantum dots. This can lead to largely improved device performance. Particularly for ZnO quantum dot decorated Zn₂SnO₄ nanowires, these decorated nanowires may find broad applications in future flexible and wearable electronics.

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