The fabrication and characterization of fully visible-transparent and flexible ultraviolet (UV) detectors, on polyethylene 2,6-naphthalate (PEN) with active channels of zinc oxide nanowires and ohmic indium tin oxide contacts, are reported and discussed. The fabricated detector has an average transmittance of 80% in the visible spectral range and is most responsive at or below 370 nm, the onset of UV light, with a UV/vis rejection ratio of 1.42 × 103. A five orders of magnitude difference in the photocurrent, between UV illumination and dark conditions, are also observed. The single-sided UV response further shows that the PEN substrate performs well as a UV reflector. The noise analysis on the nanowire UV detector indicates a noise equivalent power and detectivity (D*) of 5.88 × 10−13 WHz−0.5 and 2.13 × 109 cm Hz0.5 W−1, respectively.

Two-terminal devices were fabricated using unintentionally doped Zinc Oxide (ZnO) nanowires (NW) grown via a chemical vapor deposition technique to study the influence of surface functionalization on their transport properties. Organic molecules with differing functional groups demonstrated contrasting effects on the charge transport of the nanowires depending on the polarity and orientation of the molecules.