Novel Tunable Conductive Type SnOx Thin-Film Phototransistor with High Multiband Sensitivity: Effects of Pulsing Process and Au Nanoplasmons
摘要
Metal oxide thin-film phototransistors (MO-TFPTs) are promising for next-generation optical sensing systems; however, innovative design strategies are required to develop multispectral sensing devices, owing to the limited absorption range of MO materials. We report novel multispectral (MS) MO-TFPTs based on combined gold nanoparticles (Au-NPs) and tin-oxide (SnOx) thin films with tunable conductive type. SnOx thin films were elaborated using DC sputtering and reactive gas pulsing process (RGPP) to realize n- and p-type conductivity films. Au-NPs were synthesized on SnOx thin films by using DC sputtering with an appropriate thermal treatment process. The experimental analysis shows that RGPP can tune the structural and electrical properties of the SnOx by controlling the oxygen level in the film, while Au-NPs offer an extended absorption band of SnOx thin film to the visible and near-infrared (NIR) ranges. The obtained electrical and optical parameters were used to analyze the performance of n- and p-type SnOx MO TFPT devices. It is demonstrated that a high NIR responsivity of 68 A/W and superior detectivity of 2.7 × 1015 Jones are achieved. This is mainly attributed to the plasmonic enhanced absorption effect enabled by Au-NPs and the high carrier mobility of SnOx thin films. Therefore, this study offers new guidelines for the elaboration of MO-based TFPTs with tunable conductive type and highly improved MS sensing characteristics.