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

Abstract Gallium oxide (Ga2O3) 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, Ga2O3 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 Ga2O3 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 Ga2O3 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.