Enhanced Performance of Self-Powered Ga₂O₃/ZnO:V Heterojunction Solar-Blind Ultraviolet Photodetectors by Coupling Ferroelectricity and Piezoelectricity

Abstract

Ferroelectric materials have aroused increasing interest in the field of self-powered ultraviolet (UV) photodetectors (PDs) for their switchable spontaneous polarization. However, the utilization of ferroelectric materials to modulate the built-in electric field and energy band at the junction interface has rarely been investigated. Herein, we design and fabricate self-powered solar-blind UV PDs based on a Ga₂O₃/ZnO:V heterojunction. The performance of the Ga₂O₃/ZnO:V PD is significantly enhanced through the reasonable coupling of ferroelectricity and piezoelectricity within the ZnO:V film. The device at 260 nm exhibits excellent photoelectric properties with high peak responsivity of 64.5 mA/W, a specific detectivity of 3.8 × 10¹⁰ Jones, and a rise/decay time of 1.9/45.2 μs, together with reproducibility and stability. Systematical energy band diagram analysis reveals that the excellent performance of Ga₂O₃/ZnO:V PD can be attributed to the driving forces arising from the addition of the depolarization field and piezoelectric field, which increases the intensity of built-in electric field and promotes the separation and transport of photogenerated carriers at the heterojunction interface. The findings of our research provide a novel avenue and valuable guidance for the design of high-performance self-powered photodetectors.