Developing high-sensitivity UV sensors based on ZnO nanorods grown on TiO2 seed layer films using solution immersion method

[Display omitted] •At the surface, the effective surface energy is lower, thus reduces the energy barriers and facilitating nucleation.•TiO2:ZnO nanorods thin film showed the highest intensity of absorbance values at UV and visible region compared to others.•The photoresponse of the TiO2:ZnO nanorods device was improved compared with the bare TiO2 and bare ZnO. TiO2:ZnO nanorods thin film has the great properties of packed ZnO nanorods with good crystallinity and improved UV absorption properties which are suitable for optoelectronic device applications. ZnO nanorods array was fabricated by using a seeding method with TiO2 as seed layer. As a result, well aligned of ZnO rods with good distribution can grow. Different samples of TiO2, ZnO and TiO2:ZnO nanorods thin film were used as based material in UV sensor devices. The responsivities of the sensors are 1.70 × 10−1A/W, 7.76 × 10−5 A/W and 2.22 × 10−7 A/W for TiO2:ZnO nanorods, TiO2 seed layer and ZnO rods based UV sensors respectively. Results indicate that the TiO2:ZnO nanorods UV sensor exhibits rapid and high response to UV light compared with TiO2 and ZnO sensor because of its small size of nanorods and seed layer acting as an absorbance assisted and capacitive layer on the glass surface.