High sensitivity of middle-wavelength infrared photodetectors based on an individual InSb nanowire

Abstract

Single-crystal indium antimony (InSb) nanowire was fabricated into middle-infrared photodetectors based on a metal–semiconductor-metal (M-S-M) structure. The InSb nanowires were synthesized using an electrochemical method at room temperature. The characteristics of the FET reveal an electron concentration of 3.6 × 1017 cm−3 and an electron mobility of 215.25 cm2 V−1 s−1. The photodetectors exhibit good photoconductive performance, excellent stability, reproducibility, superior responsivity (8.4 × 104 A W−1), and quantum efficiency (1.96 × 106%). These superior properties are attributed to the high surface-to-volume ratio and single-crystal 1D nanostructure of photodetectors that significantly reduce the scattering, trapping, and the transit time between the electrodes during the transport process. Furthermore, the M-S-M structure can effectively enhance space charge effect by the formation of the Schottky contacts, which significantly assists with the electron injection and photocurrent gain.

Emerging technologies for high performance infrared detectors

“…Moreover, NWs of almost all the existing semiconductor materials can now be realized by either top-down or bottom-up approaches. Although a lot of work has been devoted to investigating NW IRPDs in the past few years [88][89][90][91][92][93][94], most of the reported NW IRPDs are limited in the visible and ultraviolet spectral regions [89][90][91], and little work is conducted in the IR region [92,93]. III-V semiconductor NWs with narrow bandgaps are considered as promising candidates for constructing IRPDs.…”

Incorporating Graphene into Fuel Cell Design

“…Among its many properties (Table 9.1) [2][3][4][5][6][7][8], the electronic conductivity of graphene is one of the most exciting properties that may hold the key to many of the technological challenges society is faced with. The electron mobility of graphene (>200,000 cm 2 V −1 s −1 ) [4] is significantly higher than common semi-conducting materials, such as silicon (1400 cm 2 V −1 s −1 ) [2] and indium antimonide (77,000 cm 2 V −1 s −1 ) [9], allowing potential application for conductors and semiconductors. There is significant research towards expanding the band gap between the conduction band and Fermi level of graphene, because it fundamentally exhibits a band gap of zero, meaning that its application for semiconductors in electronic devices is limited as a single sheet.…”

Understanding the Mechanisms that Affect the Quality of Electrochemically Grown Semiconducting Nanowires

“…After identifying the various mechanisms of electrochemical growth of semiconducting nanowires, we present the specific growth process conditions for growth of indium antimonide (InSb) nanowires. Indium antimonide (InSb) bulk is a promising III-V direct bandgap semiconductor material with zinc blende (FCC) structure [10][11][12][13][14]. InSb has a high room temperature mobility (electron and hole mobility [15] of 77,000 and 850 cm 2 V −1 s −1 , respectively), low electron effective mass [16] of 0.014, and low direct bandgap (E g = 0.17 eV, at 300 K), and large Lande g-factor of 51, [17] making it suitable for use in applications such as high speed, low-power transistors, tunneling field effect transistors (FETs), infrared optoelectronics [18], and magnetoresistive sensors [19].…”