A highly responsive UV photodetector based on WO3–ZnO layered thin film

Abstract

This work focuses on the development of a heterostructure ultraviolet photodetector constructed using tungsten oxide (WO<inf>3</inf>) nanosheets (NSs) and zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles (NPs), fabricated on Si/SiO<inf>2</inf> substrates. For synthesis, a simple, economically feasible hydrothermal for WO<inf>3</inf> and sol-gel synthesis approach for ZnO was used. The WO<inf>3</inf> NSs/ZnO NPs heterostructure thin-film UV photodetector demonstrates excellent performance, including high responsivity (R), and detectivity (D) of 97.55 A/W, and 6.5 × 1011 Jones, respectively, when exposed to UV light (λ ∼ 365 nm). The working mechanism of the fabricated photodetector explained using a suitable energy band diagram. The WO<inf>3</inf> NSs/ZnO NPs heterostructure thin-film UV photodetector exhibits a satisfactory response time, with a rise time of 5.35 s and a fall time of 10.24 s. © 2025 Elsevier B.V.