Effect of Ag Nanoparticle Texturing on Al₂O₃ Nanowires for Improved Photodetection

This work utilized the glancing angle deposition (GLAD) method to grow an Al2O3 nanowires (NW) device and an Ag nanoparticles (NP) textured Al2O3 NW device on an n-Si substrate. The growth of the proposed nanostructures is facilitated by virtue of the shadowing effect of the GLAD process. The polycrystalline crystal structure was determined through independent crystallographic investigations. After Ag NP texturing on Al2O3 NW, an improvement in optical absorption and Raman emission was observed. Ag texturing on Al2O3 NW considerably improved the most important photodetection parameters, including photosensitivity, responsivity, quantum efficiency, detectivity, and noise equivalent of power (NEP). This overall improvement in the photodetection parameters is primarily due to the enhancement in the photocurrent by localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) exhibited by Ag NP. The proposed device with Ag NP also exhibited an ultrafast photo response. Therefore, the finding reveals that the Ag NP textured Al2O3 NW device is a feasible option for high-speed photodetection applications.