CuO-Based Solar-Blind Photodetector for Flexible Electronics

Flexible UV-C i.e. solar-blind detectors are in high demand, not only due to their potential for non-line of sight communication, and environmental monitoring but also for medical technology. Now-a-days, the development of UV-C (200 nm to 270 nm) light sources and detectors is highly essential. Herein, we report the fabrication of UV-C photodetector using ultra-wide bandgap CuO nanostructures (NSs) with \text{E}_{\mathbf {g}} =3.98 eV, on a flexible substrate. All solution-based technique was followed for the growth of CuO NSs on poly-ethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate. The as-fabricated device has shown photo-sensitivity of \sim 15, photo-responsivity of \sim 485 mA/W and photo-detectivity of \sim \,\,1.4\times 10^{11} Jones with 220 nm excitation (at −20 V applied bias). Moreover, the external quantum efficiency (EQE) and linear-dynamic range (LDR) of the device were calculated to be 74 % and 56 dB, respectively at 220 nm excitation.