UV-activated room-temperature gas sensing mechanism of polycrystalline ZnO

Shan Wei Fan*, Arvind K. Srivastava, Vinayak P. Dravid

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

333 Scopus citations

Abstract

The effects of UV illumination on the electronic properties and gas sensing performance of ZnO are reported. It is found that UV light improves the sensitivity and the sensor response and recovery rate. By investigating the photoresponse behavior of ZnO, we observe that the electrons generated by UV light promote the adsorption of oxygen and form the photoinduced oxygen ions [O2- (hv)]. These ions [O2- (hv)] are responsible for the room-temperature gas sensing phenomena and promise enhanced sensor performance through further optimization.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number142106
JournalApplied Physics Letters
Volume95
Issue number14
DOIs
StatePublished - 2009

Funding

This research work was primarily supported by U.S.-DOE Award No. DE-FG02-07ER46444. The sensor experimental setup and software/hardware development was initially supported by NSF-NSEC Award No. EEC-0647560. The research was performed in the EPIC facility of NUANCE Center at Northwestern University. NUANCE Center is supported by NSF-NSEC, NSF-MRSEC, Keck Foundation, the State of Illinois, and Northwestern University.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)

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