Room temperature nanowire IR, visible and UV photodetectors
First Claim
1. A photodetector comprising:
- an array of semiconductor nanowires either standing vertically on a conducting substrate and capped by a conductor transparent to light, or lying horizontally on a non-conducting substrate and capped by conductors at both ends; and
wire leads attached to the conductors and conducting substrate for connection to an electrical circuit;
wherein an insulating layer is disposed between the semiconductor nanowires and one of the conductors or the conducting substrate at one end.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Room temperature IR and UV photodetectors are provided by electrochemical self-assembly of nanowires. The detectivity of such IR detectors is up to ten times better than the state of the art. Broad peaks are observed in the room temperature absorption spectra of 10-nm diameter nanowires of CdSe and ZnS at photon energies close to the bandgap energy, indicating that the detectors are frequency selective and preferably detect light of specific frequencies. Provided is a photodetector comprising: an aluminum substrate; a layer of insulator disposed on the aluminum substrate and comprising an array of columnar pores; a plurality of semiconductor nanowires disposed within the pores and standing vertically relative to the aluminum substrate; a layer of nickel disposed in operable communication with one or more of the semiconductor nanowires; and wire leads in operable communication with the aluminum substrate and the layer of nickel for connection with an electrical circuit.
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Citations
22 Claims
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1. A photodetector comprising:
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an array of semiconductor nanowires either standing vertically on a conducting substrate and capped by a conductor transparent to light, or lying horizontally on a non-conducting substrate and capped by conductors at both ends; and wire leads attached to the conductors and conducting substrate for connection to an electrical circuit; wherein an insulating layer is disposed between the semiconductor nanowires and one of the conductors or the conducting substrate at one end. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A method of making a photodetector comprising:
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providing an aluminum foil with a thickness between 0-1 mm; degreasing and electropolishing the foil to reduce surface roughness; optionally rinsing the foil in distilled water; anodizing the aluminum foil in sulfuric, oxalic or phosphoric acid to create a nanoporous alumina film, with columnar pores on a surface of the aluminum foil; stripping off the alumina film using hot chromic/phosphoric acid; repeating the anodizing until an alumina film with a desired thickness is obtained; removing or reducing thickness of any alumina barrier present between the aluminum foil and the bottom of the pores using step anodization, reverse polarity etching, soaking in phosphoric acid, or combinations thereof; depositing semiconductor material into at least some of the columnar pores to obtain an array of semiconductor nanowires vertically disposed with respect to the aluminum foil; depositing a layer of optically transparent conductive material on top of the alumina film; and attaching wire leads to the layer of optically transparent conductive material and the aluminum substrate.
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15. A photodetector comprising:
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an array of semiconductor nanowires standing vertically within an insulating material on a conducting substrate and capped by a conductor transparent to light; and wire leads attached to the conductor and conducting substrate for connection to an electrical circuit; wherein ends of the nanowires are separated from the conducting substrate by an insulating layer of thickness between 0 and 20 nm. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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Specification