Quantum dot-doped porous silicon metal–semiconductor metal photodetector
© Chou et al.; licensee Springer. 2012
Received: 5 April 2012
Accepted: 23 May 2012
Published: 6 June 2012
In this paper, we report on the enhancement of spectral photoresponsivity of porous silicon metal–semiconductor metal (PS-MSM) photodetector embedded with colloidal quantum dots (QDs) inside the pore layer. The detection efficiency of QDs/PS hybrid-MSM photodetector was enhanced by five times larger than that of the undoped PS-MSM photodetector. The bandgap alignment between PS (approximately 1.77 eV) and QDs (approximately 1.91 eV) facilitates the photoinduced electron transfer from QDs to PS whereby enhancing the photoresponsivity. We also showed that the photoresponsitivity of QD/PS hybrid-MSM photodetector depends on the number of layer coatings of QDs and the pore sizes of PS.
KeywordsPorous silicon Quantum dots Photodetector
Colloidal quantum dots (QDs) are semiconductor nanocrystals with tunable optical property depending on their sizes and shapes that can be controlled by the fabrication process. Outstanding optoelectronic and photonic properties, such as electroluminescence, photoluminescence, photovoltaics, absorption, and narrow emission linewidth, make QDs a good candidate for photodetectors [1–6], light emitting diodes [7–9] and lasers applications [10–12]. Because of the QDs’ inherent solution-processable property, several studies have incorporated QDs into organic or inorganic matrix and demonstrated these hybrid devices with improved optoelectronic performances [13–20]. In this paper, we report on the enhancement of photoresponsivity in inorganic/inorganic hybrid device consisting of porous silicon (PS)-MSM (metal–semiconductor–metal) photodetector and CdSe/CdS/ZnS core shell QDs embedded in the pores within the PS. The bandgap alignment between PS (approximately 1.77 eV) and QDs (approximately 1.91 eV) facilitates the photoinduced electron transfer from QDs to PS and further enhances the photoresponsivity. We also show that the photoresponsitivity depends on the numbers of coating of QDs and the pore size of PS which could be controlled by the anodization time.
Results and discussion
We have presented an enhancement of the photoresponsitivity of QDs/PS hybrid MSM photodetector. We found out that the bandgap alignment between QDs and PS facilitates the electron transfer and further increases the photoresponsitivity. By choosing different anodization time and layers of QD coating, we demonstrate the flexibility in fabricating QDs/PS hybrid MSM photodetector.
VKSH received a Ph.D. from Electrical Engineering in SUNY at Buffalo in 2005. He is currently an associate professor in the Department of Applied Materials and Optoelectronic Engineering at National Chi Nan University, Taiwan. His research interests include organic/inorganic nanoporous materials, photoresponsive LC-based photonic devices, and optical thin films. CMC is a medical doctor at the Department of Surgery in Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taiwan. HTC is an undergraduate student. KTY is an assistant professor at the Nanyang Technological University in the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. He received his Ph.D. from Chemical and Biological Engineering in SUNY at Buffalo in 2006. His research interests involve the synthesis, functionalization, and application of nanoparticles. WCL is a postdoctoral scholar in the Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics (ILPB).
This study was supported by Taichung Veterans General Hospital/National Chi Nan University Joint Research Program (TCVGH-NCNU-1007903).
- McDonald SA, Konstantatos G, Zhang S, Cyr PW, Klem EJD, Levina L, Sargent EH: Solution-processed PbS quantum dot infrared photodetectors and photovoltaics. Nat Mater 2005, 4: 138–142. 10.1038/nmat1299View Article
- Konstantatos G, Howard I, Fischer A, Hoogland S, Clifford J, Klem E, Levina L, Sargent EH: Ultrasensitive solution-cast quantum dot photodetectors. Nature 2006, 442: 180–183. 10.1038/nature04855View Article
- Shieh J-M, Yu W-C, Huang JY, Wang C-K, Dai B-T, Jhan H-Y, Hsu C-W, Kuo H-C, Yang F-L, Pan C-L: Near-infrared silicon quantum dots metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor photodetector. Appl Phys Lett 2009, 94: 241108. 10.1063/1.3156806View Article
- Tu C-C, Tang L, Huang J, Voutsas A, Lin LY: Solution-processed photodetectors from colloidal silicon nano/micro particle composite. Opt Express 2010, 18: 21622–21627. 10.1364/OE.18.021622View Article
- Nayfeh OM, Rao S, Smith A, Therrien J, Nayfeh MH: Thin film silicon nanoparticle UV photodetector. IEEE Photo. Tech. Lett. 2004, 16: 1927–1929. 10.1109/LPT.2004.831271View Article
- Passmore BS, Jiang Wu, Kunets VP, Lytvyn PM, Salamo GJ, Manasreh MO: Room temperature near-infrared photoresponse based on interband transitions in In0.35Ga0.65As multiple quantum dot photodetectors. Electron Device Letters 2008, 29: 224–227.View Article
- Dabbousi BO, Bawendi MG, Onitsuka O, Rubner MF: Electroluminescence from CdSe quantum-dot/polymer composites. Appl Phys Lett 1995, 66: 1316–1318. 10.1063/1.113227View Article
- Hikmet RAM, Chin PTK, Talapin DV, Weller H: Polarized-light-emitting quantum-rod diodes. Adv Mater 2005, 17: 1436–1439. 10.1002/adma.200401763View Article
- Jiang Wu, Wang ZM, Dorogan VG, Li S, Li Z, Mazur YI, Salamo GJ: Near infrared broadband emission of In0.35Ga0.65As quantum dots on high index GaAs surfaces. Nanoscale 2011, 3: 1485–1488. 10.1039/c0nr00973cView Article
- Reitzenstein S, Bazhenov A, Gorbunov A, Hofmann C, Munch S, Loffler A, Kamp M, Reithmaier JP, Kulakovskii VD, Forchel A: Lasing in high-Q quantum-dot micropillar cavities. Appl Phys Lett 2006, 89: 051107. 10.1063/1.2266231View Article
- Gao S, Zhang C, Liu Y, Su H, Wei L, Huang T, Dellas N, Shang S, Mohney SE, Wang J: Lasing from colloidal InP/ZnS quantum dots. Opt Express 2011, 19: 5528–5535. 10.1364/OE.19.005528View Article
- Shchekin OB, Deppe DG: 1.3 μm InAs quantum dot laser with To = 161K from 0 to 80°C. Appl Phys Lett 2002, 80: 3277. 10.1063/1.1476708View Article
- Hoyer P, Koenkamp R: Photoconduction in porous TiO2 sensitized by PbS quantum dots. Appl Phys Lett 1995, 66: 349–351. 10.1063/1.114209View Article
- Huynh WU, Dittmer JJ, Alivisatos AP: Hybrid nanorod-polymer solar cells. Science 2002, 295: 2425–2427. 10.1126/science.1069156View Article
- Alguno A, Usami N, Ujihara T, Fujiwara K, Sazaki G, Nakajima K: Enhanced quantum efficiency of solar cells with self-assembled Ge dots stocked in multilayer structure. Appl Phys Lett 2003, 83: 1258–1260. 10.1063/1.1600838View Article
- Choudhury KR, Sahoo Y, Prasad PN: Hybrid quantum-dot-polymer nanocomposites for infrared photorefractivity at an optical communication wavelength. Adv Mater 2005, 17: 2877–2881. 10.1002/adma.200501489View Article
- Li X, Chon JWM, Evans RA, Gu M: Quantum-rod dispersed photopolymers for multi-dimensional photonic applications. Opt Express 2009, 17: 2954–2961. 10.1364/OE.17.002954View Article
- Shieh J-M, Huang JY, Yu W-C, Huang J-D, Wang Y-C, Chen C-W, Wang C-K, Huang W-H, Cho A-T, Kuo H-C, Dai B-T, Yang F-L, Pan C-L: Nonvolatile memory with switching interfacial polar structures of nano Si-in-mesoporous silica. Appl Phys Lett 2009, 95: 143501. 10.1063/1.3240888View Article
- Huang JY, Shieh JM, Kuo HC, Pan CL: Interfacial polar-bonding-induced multifunctionality of nano-silicon in mesoporous silica. Adv Funct Mater 2009, 19: 2089–2094. 10.1002/adfm.200801336View Article
- Qiao H, Guan B, Böcking T, Gal M, Gooding JJ, Reece PJ: Optical properties of II-VI colloidal quantum dot doped porous silicon microcavities. Appl Phys Lett 2010, 96: 161106. 10.1063/1.3404183View Article
- Qian J, Yong K-T, Roy I, Ohulchanskyy TY, Bergey EJ, Lee HH, Tramposch KM, He S, Maitra A, Prasad PN: Imaging pancreatic cancer using surface-functionalized quantum dots. J Phys Chem B 2007, 111: 6969–6972. 10.1021/jp070620nView Article
- Egeberg RC, Veje E, Ferreira Da Silva A, Pepe I, Santos Alves A: The energy-band structure of porous silicon studied with photoluminescence excitation and photoacoustic spectroscopy. J. Porous Mater 2000, 7: 173–176. 10.1023/A:1009674401781View Article
- Tang J, Sargent EH: Infrared Colloidal Quantum Dots for Photovoltaics: Fundamentals and Recent Progress. Adv Mater 2011, 23: 12–29. 10.1002/adma.201001491View Article
This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.