Facile synthesis of β–Ga2O3 nanowires network for solar-blind ultraviolet photodetector

Abstract Gallium oxide (Ga 2 O 3 ) has become a viable candidate for certain types of high-power devices due to its large energy bandgap of 4.9 eV, which has attracted widespread attention. In particular, Ga 2 O 3 nanowire structures have more unique properties due to its larger specific surface area for the high performance solar-blind ultraviolet (UV) photodetectors. In this work, the ultrafine Ga 2 O 3 nanowire network structure is obtained on the sapphire substrate with an Au catalyst by chemical vapor deposition method at 960 °C for 10 min. We can confirm that the growth of the nanowire follows the vapor–liquid–solid growth mechanism and is a β -type Ga 2 O 3 crystal through the performance test results. A solar-blind UV photodetector based on the nanowires network shows an apparent response to solar-blind UV light and almost no response to 365 nm wavelength. Furthermore, the on–off ratio, light responsivity, and response time are also measured under a 254 nm wavelength UV light irradiation, respectively. This work provides a new preparation method to improve the performance of solar-blind UV photodetector.