Renheng Bo

Ultraporous Electron-Depleted ZnO Nanoparticle Networks for Highly Sensitive Portable Visible-Blind UV Photodetectors

A hierarchical nano- and microstructured morphology for visible-blind UV photo-detectors is developed, which provides record-high milliampere photocurrents, nanoampere dark currents, and excellent selectivity to ultralow UV light intensities. This is a significant step toward the integration of high-performance UV photodetectors in wearable devices.

Low-Voltage High-Performance UV Photodetectors: An Interplay between Grain Boundaries and Debye Length.

Accurate detection of UV light by wearable low-power devices has many important applications including environmental monitoring, space to space communication, and defense. Here, we report the structural engineering of ultraporous ZnO nanoparticle networks for fabrication of very low-voltage high-performance UV photodetectors. A record high photo- to dark-current ratio of 3.3 × 105 and detectivity of 3.2 × 1012 Jones at an ultralow operation bias of 2 mV and low UV-light intensity of 86 μW·cm-2 are achieved by controlling the interplay between grain boundaries and surface depletion depth of ZnO nanoscale semiconductors. An optimal window of structural properties is determined by varying the particle size of ultraporous nanoparticle networks from 10 to 42 nm. We find that small electron-depleted nanoparticles (≤40 nm) are necessary to minimize the dark-current; however, the rise in photocurrent is tampered with decreasing particle size due to the increasing density of grain boundaries. These findings reveal that nanoparticles with a size close to twice their Debye length are required for high photo- to dark-current ratio and detectivity, while further decreasing their size decreases the photodetector performance.

Superior Self-Powered Room-Temperature Chemical Sensing with Light-Activated Inorganic Halides Perovskites

Hybrid halide perovskite is one of the promising light absorber and is intensively investigated for many optoelectronic applications. Here, the first prototype of a self-powered inorganic halides perovskite for chemical gas sensing at room temperature under visible-light irradiation is presented. These devices consist of porous network of CsPbBr3 (CPB) and can generate an open-circuit voltage of 0.87 V under visible-light irradiation, which can be used to detect various concentrations of O2 and parts per million concentrations of medically relevant volatile organic compounds such as acetone and ethanol with very quick response and recovery time. It is observed that O2 gas can passivate the surface trap sites in CPB and the ambipolar charge transport in the perovskite layer results in a distinct sensing mechanism compared with established semiconductors with symmetric electrical response to both oxidizing and reducing gases. The platform of CPB-based gas sensor provides new insights for the emerging area of wearable sensors for personalized and preventive medicine.

Nanostructured Dielectric Fractals on Resonant Plasmonic Metasurfaces for Selective and Sensitive Optical Sensing of Volatile Compounds

Advances in the understanding and fabrication of plasmonic nanostructures have led to a plethora of unprecedented optoelectronic and optochemical applications. Plasmon resonance has found widespread use in efficient optical transducers of refractive index changes in liquids. However, it has proven challenging to translate these achievements to the selective detection of gases, which typically adsorb non-specifically and induce refractive index changes below the detection limit. Here, its shown that integration of tailored fractals of dielectric TiO2 nanoparticles on a plasmonic metasurface strongly enhances the interaction between the plasmonic field and volatile organic molecules and provides a means for their selective detection. Notably, this superior optical response is due to the enhancement of the interaction between the dielectric fractals and the plasmonic metasurface for thickness of up to 1.8 μm, much higher than the evanescent plasmonic near-field (≈30 nm) . Optimal dielectric-plasmonic structures allow measurements of changes in the refractive index of the gas mixture down to <8 × 10-6 at room temperature and selective identification of three exemplary volatile organic compounds. These findings provide a basis for the development of a novel family of dielectric-plasmonic materials with application extending from light harvesting and photocatalysts to contactless sensors for noninvasive medical diagnostics.