The suppression of dark current for achieving high-performance Ga2O3 nanorod array ultraviolet photodetector

Gallium oxide (Ga2O3) is a promising candidate for next-generation solar-blind photodetectors (PDs) because of its large bandgap of 4.9 eV. Its single-crystal nanorod structure improves its photoelectric performance, which promotes carrier transformation and separation. However, Ga2O3 nanorods fabricated by the hydrothermal method have many oxygen vacancies, which largely enhance the dark current and reduce the on/off ratio of PDs, restricting application of such devices. Therefore, in this paper, dual strategies are applied to reduce the dark current of a metal–semiconductor–metal-structured Ga2O3 nanorod PD fabricated by the hydrothermal method. Through these dual strategies, which include annealing treatment and the application of a polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) coating, the dark current of the PD is reduced from 1.34 × 10−7 to 2.04 × 10−9 A at 1 V, resulting in the on/off ratio of the PD reaching as high as 3.24 × 104. Besides, the responsivity and detectivity of the device reach 1.73 A/W and 2.53 × 1012 Jones respectively, which represents better performance than those of other reported Ga2O3 nanorod array PDs. Results have shown that the new strategy adopted can greatly improve the performance of Ga2O3-based ultraviolet photodetectors.