A Spiro-MeOTAD/Ga₂O₃/Si p‑i‑n Junction Featuring Enhanced Self-Powered Solar-Blind Sensing via Balancing Absorption of Photons and Separation of Photogenerated Carriers

Abstract

Solar blind ultraviolet (SBUV) self-powered photodetectors (PDs) have a great number of applications in civil and military exploration. Ga2O3 is a prospective candidate for SBUV detection owing to its reasonable bandgap corresponding to the SBUV waveband. Nevertheless, the previously reported Ga2O3 photovoltaic devices had low photoresponse performance and were still far from the demands of practical application. Herein, we propose an idea of using spiro-MeOTAD (spiro) as the SBUV transparent conductive layer to construct p-i-n PDs (p-spiro/Ga2O3/n-Si). With the aid of double built-in electric fields, the designed p-i-n PDs could operate without any external power source. Furtherly, the influence of spiro thickness on improving the photoelectric performance of devices is investigated in detail and the optimum device is achieved, translating to a peak responsivity of 192 mA/W upon a weak 254 nm light illumination of 2 μW/cm2 at zero bias. In addition, the I–t curve of our PD shows binary response characteristics and a four-stage current response behavior under a small forward bias, and also, its underlying working mechanism is analyzed. In sum, this newly developed device presents great potential for booming the high energy-efficient optoelectronic devices in the short run