Photoactivation of Ag ions for improved WO₃-based optoelectronic devices

In this research, the performance of two different photodetectors, Al/WO3/p-Si and Al/Ag@WO₃/p-Si, was compared. The monoclinic structure was evaluated using X-ray diffraction. A surface morphology using FE-SEM, utilizing an atomic force microscope to analyze the surface topography in terms of RMS and average roughness, and the X-ray spectra showed the existence of the elements W, Ag, and O. During a 35-s immersion, the produced films had the greatest absorbance and lowest energy gap. The thickness of the deposited nanofilms was as follows: 125 nm for the pure WO₃, 160 nm at 5 s, 420 nm at 15 s, 165 nm at 25 s, 70 nm at 35 s, and 225 nm at 45 s. The ideality factor, barrier height, and conductivity values for Ag@WO₃/p-Si were (0.86, 3.07), and the greatest conductivity, respectively, was found at the immersion period of 35 s, according to the study of DC I-V. The build-in potential and depletion area width of Ag@WO₃/p-Si devices were (0.7, 12.2 × 10⁵ cm), and the responsivity and detectivity at a wavelength of (425) nm of Al/Ag@WO₃/p-Si were (0.31 A W-1) and (1.3281010 Jones), respectively, according to the C-V observations.