Facile synthesis of Cu--In--Zn--S alloy nanospheres for fast photoelectric detection across the visible spectrum

Abstract

Fast and broadband photoelectric detection is a key process to many photoelectronic applications, during which the semiconductor light absorber plays a critical role. In this report, we prepared Cu–In–Zn–S (CIZS) nanospheres with different compositions via a facile hydrothermal method. These nanospheres were ~200 nm in size and comprised of many small nanocrystals. A photodetector responded to the visible spectrum was demonstrated by spraying the solution processed nanospheres onto gold interdigital electrodes. The photoelectric characterization of these devices revealed that CIZS nanospheres with low molar ratio of n(Cu)/n(In) exhibited improved photoelectric response compared to those with high n(Cu)/n(In), which was attributed to the reduced defects. The relatively large switching ratio (I_on/I_off), fast response and wide spectral coverage of the CIZS-based photodetector render it a promising potential candidate for photoelectronic applications.

Keywords

chalcogenides / Cu--In--Zn--S nanospheres / solvothermal / photoelectric detection

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Disclosure of potential conflicts of interests

The authors declare no potential conflicts of interests.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to gratefully acknowledge the funding support from the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (project number BK20160278), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2019M651677), the Jiangsu Shuangchuang Program, the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2018YFB2200500), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61975023 and 61674023), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (106112017CDJQJ128837, 2019CDYGYB010, 2019CDYGYB019, and 2018CDQYDL0051), the Chongqing Research Program of Basic Research and Frontier Technology (cstc2017jcyjB0127), and the International Science & Technology Cooperation Program of China (2016YFE0119300).

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