Abstract—Zinc Oxide nanowires were prepared on an Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) substrate by a hydrothermal method which is renowned for its simple, low cost, and low temperature techniques. These wires prepared with different reaction times were demonstrated to be utilized as UV photodetectors. The morphology, elemental compositions, and crystallization of ZnO nanowire structures were analyzed by Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM), X-Ray Spectroscopy (XPS), and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), respectively. The optical properties of the nanodevices were measured by using UV-vis absorption spectrometer, and the properties of UV photodetectors were characterized by I-V curves. At a given bias voltage of 5 V, ZnO nanowire devices, prepared at the reaction time of 2 h, exhibited high photocurrent, high sensitivity, and fast response time to UV illumination as compared to the devices prepared at the reaction time of 5 h. A higher surface to volume ratio is the main contribution to those properties. These results suggest that the 2-hours ZnO nanowires exhibit great promise for the highly efficient UV photodetectors. 
 

Index Terms—zinc oxide, nanowires, UV-photodetector

Cite: S. Noothongkaew, O. Thumthan, and Ki-Seok An, "High-performance Ultraviolet Photodetectors Based on ZnO Nanostructures," International Journal of Electronics and Electrical Engineering, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 1-5, March 2018. doi: 10.18178/ijeee.6.1.1-5